


The Walk to Dawn

by LenciaAnn



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Fantasy Blood and Fighting, Fantasy Violence, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Making use of my D&D Players Handbooks, Reincarnation, Spells work how they SEEM like they should work, Swearing, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22427680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LenciaAnn/pseuds/LenciaAnn
Summary: Nearly 18 years ago, the demon Orcus, Prince of the Undead, waged a short and brutal war against the Raven Queen.  She and all her reapers were either captured, or destroyed.  All of them.But a failed mission to the Plane of Thought proves that - not all was lost.  Kravitz's soul endured and he may just be the key to winning the war against Orcus and keeping the plane from collapsing into chaos.Now NO ONE TELL HIM ANYTHING.Memory loss due to Reincarnation, Hurt/Comfort, and all the emotional torment I can possibly put them through.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 101
Kudos: 95





	1. Endure

_There’s screaming. Frantic. Words he can’t quite make out through the fog of his mind, but the voice, the voice is familiar and important enough to make him try and struggle against the darkness. Pressure on his chest. “Don’t move. Just, just stay still. We’ll fix this.” A hysterical shriek. “Fix this!”_

__

__

Sound swirls, muddled, like waves crashing over his ability to make out what’s being said. He thinks that hand is still on his chest, but he can’t feel it anymore. He wants to open his eyes – just see him once more.

_“I cast – ”_

~

_“It’s familiar, but not too familiar. But not to not familiar~”_

Kravitz woke with a start as his alarm began playing music loudly – It’s a Departure. He snaked one arm out from under the warmth of the comforter and quickly turned it off. He took a deep breath, letting his heart stop racing, before rolling over onto his back and staring at the ceiling. That dream again. He’d been having it for as long as he could remember, this reoccurring nightmare. Always the same one. It used to wake him up as a child, crying and inconsolable. It hadn’t done anything for his reputation – the quiet, creepy foster kid also had night terrors. Hard to place, difficult to keep. 

He’d stolen his file once, after leaving the Washingtons. He had liked them. He thought they’d liked him. They’d remembered his birthday without being prompted, bought him the pink tourmaline he’d almost shop-lifted from the weirdo hippie store in the mall, simply because he liked it, and encouraged him to grow his hair out when he punched his foster brother in the nose for teasing him about its length instead of punishing him. But just when he started really getting comfortable, began to feel like he belonged, they had given him back. 

He’d wanted to know why. 

His file had been full of evaluations – from his social workers, his teachers, his therapist, and his previous families. They all agreed that he was a good student, polite, and generally agreeable. And unsettling. Unusual. Creepy. The worst were the notes from the families that sounded genuinely apologetic and wrote that they sincerely hoped that Kravitz would find the right family soon. He’d put the file back where he found it, and didn’t protest the next move, to the next family and the next school.

At least it would be over soon. “Seventeen years, seven months, eleven days,” Kravitz muttered to himself as he threw off his blankets and got up. All his things barely filled two drawers in the dresser, and the closet had room to spare, his shirts hung up arranged by the length of their sleeves. He’d age out of foster care soon, and then no one would be obligated to keep him, and fewer clothes meant a lighter black garbage bag when he was inevitably instructed to collect all his worldly possessions and leave.

Kravtiz ducked into the tiny, cupboard-sized bathroom adjacent to his room, washing up quickly before getting dressed in his favorite pair of black jeans and a black button down. He stopped back by his room to grab his homework and throw it into his backpack. 

He could hear Mrs. Beverly in the kitchen when he opened his bedroom door again, and the faint sound of the television. He considered breakfast for a moment and then shook his head. Not worth it. He didn’t want to risk the ‘clothing’ conversation again. How had it gone last night as he came back from school? “Black on black again today, Kravitz?” “Yes, ma’am.” “I have half a mind to take you to the mall this weekend. A striking boy like yourself, you’d do well with a little color.” “Thank you, ma’am, but I’m fine.” Black lasted longer – didn’t wash out or fade as quickly as color.

It had been awkward last night when Kravitz had tried to explain that while he appreciated the thought, she shouldn’t waste her money on bright, trendy, cheaply made clothing for him. 

Mrs. Beverly, a little old retired chemistry teacher with a voice like a drill sergeant, and a softness for kids about to age out of the system. She and her husband, God rest his soul, never had children of their own. After he passed away, she’d made it her mission to take in kids like Kravitz. Kravitz couldn’t help but be grateful, even if he felt vaguely guilty about how much it drove her neighbors crazy. Apparently last year, before he came, her foster kid had beat her up and robbed her before taking off. Her neighbors had hoped that would spell the end of older, troubled teens in their neighborhood. But as soon as she was out of the hospital, Mrs. Beverley had demanded the next one. Tough old bat. Kravitz liked her a lot. 

She wasn’t a great cook, and liked watching game shows in the evening like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, but she was also a great story teller, gesturing expressively towards her husband’s urn on the TV stand while she told him about the adventures they’d had in their youths.

“Kravitz?” He frozen his hand on the doorknob. Caught. He turned and gave Mrs. Beverly a weak smile.

“Yes, ma’am?” She looked him up and down slowly, and then tossed him a packet of pop tarts which he caught one handed. Cherry frosted – his favorite. An apology, for making him uncomfortable last night. He smiled a little wider and tucked the silver packet into the pocket of his jacket.

“It’s cold out there,” she reminded him, pulled a deep red scarf from the hooks by the door and winding it loosely around his neck. He accepted it humbly – his apology for hurting her feelings when he knew she was just trying to do something kind. Most kids would jump at the prospect of getting new things. He just… wasn’t like most kids. “It snowed again last night. You’ll catch your death of cold, mark my words. You have your homework?”

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“And you have piano after school?”

Kravitz nodded and adjusted the scarf so that both tails hung over his back. Piano lessons – forget the offer of new clothing, the lessons were probably the greatest gift Mrs. Beverly had given him next to a safe place to spend his last months as a foster kid. She’d gone to his mandatory parent/teacher conference with his social worker, and had noticed him poking around with the piano in the choir room when she’d returned to get him. He’d rather have the lessons over all the new clothes in the world.

“Alright,” Mrs. Beverly finally said, taking a step back from him and smiling, “Don’t miss the bus.”

The neighbors on the right were watching him leave again but Kravitz did his best to ignore them, waving goodbye to Mrs. Beverly as he hurried out the door. They’d called the cops on him his second week with Mrs. Beverly even though he’d used the key she’d given him to let himself into the house while she was out grocery shopping. They claimed it was a misunderstanding, but Kravitz had received their message loud and clear. They were looking for an excuse and would take it if he gave it to them.

The night’s snow was a good couple inches and he made a mental note to shovel the driveway tomorrow as he walked towards the bus stop. A few other kids were gathered there, half awake and on their phones, mostly sophomores and juniors without cars or friends with cars. Kravitz recognized some of them in the vague, we take the same bus, kind of way. The kid nearest him, short with mousy brown hair, looked over his shoulder at him, and then moved further away into the huddle of other kids, all turned like penguins towards each other to block out the wind and cold.

Once upon a time, as a kid, it had bothered him more. Why no one wanted to be around him, sit next to him, be his partner in the stupid projects teachers assigned just to make kids’ lives hell. At almost eighteen, Kravitz just couldn’t make himself care enough. It just was. At least it meant that he got the seat on the bus to himself – a couple kids opting to stand rather than sit next to him.

Still, Kravitz moved all the way into the seat, leaning his head against the cold glass of the bus window, just incase someone wanted to sit down in the empty one next to him. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but sometimes it happened. “Have you finished your report on Joaquin Terrero?” he heard the girl behind him ask her seatmate. “Ms. Mecky wants eight pages! She’s crazy! Does she think her’s is the only class I have?”

Were the teachers assigning Song and Story stuff already? All that happened years before Kravitz was born – the 25th year anniversary was coming up – but he’d had most of the mandatory classes that covered the Day. Honestly, it made him feel uneasy, and he was glad that he hadn’t been around for it. Just about everyone had someone they’d lost when the Hunger came. It was the part people didn’t talk about – oh they loved talking about the Seven Birds, about Joaquin Terrero (always BOTH names), and about the heroes that were made out of the Day. Things that made people feel better, feel like they had agency. No one liked to talk about those who’d died before the tides were turned. About the property damage, about the parents who didn’t come home from work, about the schools crushed under pillars of blackness.

As Kravitz stepped down from the bus, a flash of movement caught his eye and he turned, his gaze wandering to the dark grey morning sky. A single creature flew away from the building with jerky movements and a chitter than made Kravitz frown. “Go home, little bat,” he murmured. “You’ve been out too late.”

“Talking to yourself, goth-boy?” he heard behind him, but Kravitz ignored it entirely and strode slowly towards the school building. They were just words, and he’d heard far worse before than a low-hanging insult to his clothing choices. He’d been generally left alone this year, with the other seniors too busy and wrapped up in their own lives to need to ‘prove’ anything to the quiet new guy. Applying for college, getting cars, and part-time jobs, and girlfriends. Getting ready to start their lives. And he… he was just trying to endure. 

The morning classes passed without incident. Kravitz ate this pop tarts slowly through first period English while drafting a five-paragraph essay for Frankenstein (he’d…. mostly finished reading it. Enough to have an idea about what he wanted to write about) and threw out the silver wrapper on his way to Algebra II, passing students on the stairs who were heading down for their classes in language, music, art, and theater. No room in his schedule this year for creative classes – not if he wanted to graduate on time. 

The clouds had deep purple tinges at the corners when lunch period rolled around, but Kravitz still collected his school lunch tray and headed outside, ignoring the weird looks the cafeteria monitor gave him. With the night’s snow un-melted and the cold, there weren’t many students outside – mostly just those hurrying to and from their cars clutching bright, greasy bags of fast food. But it was quieter than the echoing noise of the cafeteria. 

Kravitz dropped his backpack to the ground and sat down against the wall of the 800 block, un-littered by snow due to the large overhang where the student government had their bake sale every three months for whatever asinine dance they were in tasked with raising funds for.

His lunch was the basic lunch that he and other poor kids got for free, or nearly free, but the pop tarts seemed so long ago, that it was received with at least a little enthusiasm. The little styrofoam tray had a grilled cheese sandwich, a handful of baby carrots with a cup of ranch dressing, a scoop of what was passing for potato salad, and a carton of milk that he still hadn’t convinced the lunch lady not to give him, no matter how many times he told her he didn’t drink milk. It wasn’t that he was lactose intolerant, that would make the grilled cheese sandwich distressing, no, milk was simply disgusting. She just kept giving it to him and muttering something about strong bones in a growing boy.

Alone but for a small group of black birds in one of the naked maple trees, Kravits began to slowly eat his sandwich, the cheese still warm and melted for the moment. Not for the first time, or for the last time, Kravitz wished again that he had a phone, just for the ability to store and play music. The Washingtons had given him a basic phone while he lived with them, and he'd practically lived with headphones on until he moved out and had to give it back.

One of the crows, the largest, who had been watching him with increasing interest, finally flew down from the tree and began stalking towards him cautiously. It had to be the leader bird – did birds have, uh, pride leaders? Was that what it was called? This one was the size of a cat and just as black and sleek. It made Kravitz smile and he carefully tore off a small piece of his sandwich’s crust to toss towards the bird. The bird hopped back a few feet, and then moved forward again, snatching the bread and devouring it with gusto.

Kravtiz chuckled a little and tore off a second piece, humming a little as he tried to coax the bird closer, when something small and black dive-bombed the crow, sending into a flurry of flapping wings and angry sounds. “What the hell?” Kravitz gasped. Was, was that a bat? It circled back around towards him, over the head of the crow. “Go away,” he said, grabbing his lunch protectively. There must be a roost or something around here. “Get out.”

For a moment the bat seemed to pause, and then it swooped back towards the sky. Kravitz watched it vanish as quickly as it had appeared, his heart fast. What… what was that? He’d never heard of bats attacking birds.

The crow flapped his wings a few more times and then looked at him quizzedly, cawing once. It made Kravitz smile, and he tossed his last bit of crust to it. “Yeah, I’m okay.” 

The crow stayed with him for the rest of lunch, just kind of walking back and forth around where Kravitz sat and tried to wade through the end of Frankenstein, stopping now and then to peck at the ground before resuming his strut. But the sound of the bell made him take off again for the tree where the smaller crows still sat. Kravitz watched the rest of the flock greet him with a chorus of deep throaty craws as he gathered up his empty tray and his bag and hurried back inside.

The busy hall hit him with a blast of hot air and noise, and he for a moment he longed for the cold silence of the deserted courtyard. Just him and the birds. But, if he skipped, just turned around and left for the day, Mrs. Beverly would be called and she was too kind to put her through that. It was so much easier to just do what he was expected to do – go to class, take notes quietly, do his work. There had to be something comforting in the routine of it. Boring, but comforting.

So he shouldered his backpack, dodged a few slow moving students, and headed up the west stairwell to his generic senior World Government class. It was a graduation requirement and as uninteresting as it sounded, but at least he’d gotten to start it with everyone else in his class. He was also taking his freshman state history class due to changing families two years ago which made his original freshman history class invalid for graduation here. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared but… it had taken up the slot in his schedule that he could have put a music class.

Kravitz’s seat in World Government was closer to the front than he’d necessarily like, usually. Alphabetically seated, even as damn seniors like they weren’t all practically legal adults, it was always a toss-up if his teacher liked the arrangement or disliked it as much as he did. It mostly depended if they saw the words ‘foster kid’, took one look at him, and decided right then and there if he was going to be trouble or not. 

But, at least in World Government, having assigned seating meant no one would fight him for his seat – and honestly he dreaded the 2nd semester shuffled when the teachers tended with swap the back of the alphabet to the front. Then he’d have to give up his seat against the wall by the window. The windows didn’t open – no one seemed to trust teenagers with that kind of power, but they did give him a nice view of the outside while Mr. Talbot droned on about the differences between democratic republics and oligarchs. 

During the fall he watched the trees turn all colors of fire – red and gold and orange, and in the spring the window would give him a view of the green field where the PE classes played lacrosse or field hockey. But today his view was blocked by the large crow on the window sill, staring at him.

Kravitz noticed it so suddenly that he jumped, dropping his pencil to his desk with a clatter that was only made worse as he failed to stop it from rolling off his desk and dropped to the floor. “Sorry,” he muttered to his classmates around him as he reached down and picked it up.

“You fall asleep or something?” the girl next to him whispered with a laugh. It would have been a good excuse. This class was a snore.

“No, there’s,” he looked back at the window. The crow was still there, looking in, his head cocked to the side. Kravitz stared back, unsure but, he felt like it could be the big one from lunch. “There’s a crow.”

The girl leaned to the side to get a better look and an impressed look crossed her face. “It’s not a crow,” she whispered back, “Too big. It’s got to be a raven. I’ve never seen one outside of a zoo.”

“Less chatter please,” Mr. Talbot raised his voice, and Kravitz reluctantly turned his attention back towards his notes.

The cro-raven, stayed at the window through his whole class.

~

Piano lessons after school meant an extra bus trip downtown, and a reheated dinner right before bed, but to Kravitz it was more than worth it. He did his homework in the little coffee and sandwich shop a few doors down from the music store where he took his lessons while he waited for the time to tick down. Mrs. Beverly always apologized about the late hour – but the 9pm slot right before closing was the only one open that she could consistently get for him. Kravitz didn’t mind. His lessons could be at midnight, and he’d still be overjoyed. 

The workers at the coffee shop hadn’t enjoyed his presence at first – especially when he didn’t buy food and stayed for hours at the corner table. But they got used to seeing him, and his typical coffee order – caramel sauce, not syrup, in dark roast drip coffee – enough that they could all greet him by name (truthfully, he’d learned theirs first) and every now and then they’d bring him the messed up orders for free.

The posters on the wall were advertising a special open mike night for the anniversary of Story and Song, wallpapered over others about local concerts, babysitting services, and holiday specials over a month old. About half the email addresses for inquiring about how to sign-up had been torn off by eager artists. 

A couple other teens seated a few tables down were blowing straw wrappers at each other, cackling and jostling each other, ignoring the glares the barista was shooting their way. They were noisy, disrespectful of the other patrons, and were probably going to get themselves kicked out soon if they didn’t stop. 

God Kravitz wanted to be a part of something like that. The casual way they threw their arms over each other’s shoulders, stole sips of each other’s drinks, joked, and laughed with wild abandon. So full of life. Kravitz tore his gaze back down to his essay on Frankenstein, his pencil tapping irritatedly until he finally just scribbled across the top ‘There is No Excuse for Necromancy.’ He liked it better than ‘Victor Tried,’ his current working title for the prompt of ‘Discuss and explain the ethical motivations of Victor Frankenstein.’ Fuck that guy, seriously.

Fifteen minutes till the hour, Kravitz began packing up his text books, downed the dregs of his coffee – one free refill on drip, and said goodnight to Jenn at the register where she was starting her closing procedure as he headed outside towards Crescendo.

Crescendo was a dinky little music store that made most of its money from renting instruments to students and giving private lessons in the three little rooms in the back. How it managed to stay in business was anyone’s guess. The place was nearly deserted when Kravitz entered, just the cashier on duty and student ahead of him’s mom, just waiting for her daughter. He glanced at her, and then sharply away. 

He had that ‘weird feeling’ about her. 

He didn’t really know what else to call it. He’d tried to explain it to his social worker when he was a kid, after getting removed from the Andersons when he kept asking his foster father why he felt different. He barely remembered the incident now – he’d only been six. But the question had unnerved them. And why shouldn’t it? What kind of question is that from a little kid? He didn’t even know either. Mr. Anderson just…. Felt different. Maybe it was for the better anyway, he’d heard his social worker talking with a coworker later and tell her that Mr. Anderson had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away. Mrs. Anderson didn’t need him around while she was grieving.

Still, that didn’t stop the weird feeling he sometimes got around people. Usually it was older people – little old ladies and men who’d smile at him and ask if they knew him from somewhere. They never did, but he had some wonderful conversations with them. There was even one woman who’d been genuinely sad to see him go. He couldn’t explain it. 

But then sometimes he got that weird feeling around people was like this woman, flipping through sheet music with her pink nails, wearing a cute hand-knit pink beanie over short brown curls.

Kravitz put her out of his mind though as he passed her daughter girl and stepped into the small practice room. It was small, and the piano was a simple thing – probably bought from a church looking to upgrade. Kravitz loved it. His teacher was sipping on a cup of water, but smiled as he entered. “Always on time,” she greeted him, as though she expected him to be tardy.

“Highlight of my week, ma’am,” Kravitz replied with a small smile as he pulled his sheet music out of his bag. He couldn’t practice it at Mrs. Beverly’s, but sometimes he just liked looking at it, playing the notes in his head and tapping out the tempo on his leg while they tried to guess the Daily Double together. “If I’m late, I’m dead.”

She laughed at that and motioned for him to take his seat on the piano bench. Kravitz pressed down on the keys and closed his eyes, letting the sound fill him.

Kravitz couldn’t remember a time when music wasn’t an important part of him. Somewhere in his memory was an early foster mom, so long ago he couldn’t remember her face or her name, but she liked to pick him up when songs came on her older daughter’s movies, and she’d dance with him in her arms with his head tucked under her chin awhile the music played – _‘Somewhere, out there. Beneath a pale moon sky. Someone’s thinking of me, and loving me, tonight.’_

His therapist said that he’d learned self-comfort with music, whatever that meant. Something about little kids sleeping through the night. Kravitz thought Dr. Ling was reaching too deep – he just loved music. Why couldn’t it just be that simple? Some kids love books – the stories that take them away to another world. Awkward little girls become knights, friendless little boys become wizards. Music was the same thing – an escape to a different world.

And thanks to the kindness of Mrs. Beverly, he could completely indulge in that feeling for one hour every week. Even if it meant leaving the warmth of the little music store at 10, stepping out into the cold and the dark, his breath visible in the freezing air. It was a dark, moonless night, and the soft snow of the morning had frozen over with an icy crust that crunched underfoot. The sparsely placed light posts cast their pale, weak light on the sidewalk as Kravitz shouldered his backpack and began walking towards the bus station to catch the last 405 back to Mrs. Beverly’s.

Above him on one of the lights sat a crow. A raven? A large black bird the size of a hawk almost invisible against an even blacker sky. Kravitz stopped to stare at it. “What are you still doing out?” he asked, leaning his head back to see it better. Weren’t only owls nocturnal? More, it didn’t seem to be roosting there, or trying to sleep. The raven flapped his dark wings a few times at the sound of Kravtiz’s voice and began to preen his feathers a little. “You’d better find a tree, friend,” Kravitz warned it as he started walking again. “It’s going to be a cold night.”

Cold and oddly quiet, like a held breath, poised on the fine edge of a knife. There was no one else around. Not even the odd car driving down the strip, casting trailing shadows over the closed businesses lining the road. Kravitz picked up his pace a little – the sooner he got to the bus stop the better. In his experience, cops loved stopping kids like him and he was not in the mood for profiling tonight. Or, ever, basically.

A squeal and angry chittering sound was the only warning he got, barely able to throw his hands up in front of his face as he was attacked by a large bat. Kravitz shouted, and tried to back up away from it, only to hear a louder screech, and felt a brush of feathers against his face as the bat was suddenly gone. The raven screeched again, hooking his talons into the bat that tried to escape and take to the air again, a flurry of black feathers and dark fur, and blood on the snowy sidewalk. 

“Jesus Christ!” Kravitz breathed in roughly and stepped further away from the fighting animals as the bat began to struggle more weakly. One step. Two steps. His shoes crunched loudly on the ice, and something big and dark moved in the alley, just to his right. 

In the dim light, he could make out a bag of trash, torn open, and something with its head deep into the contents making deep snuffling, snarling sounds – its back hunched as it rooted around the spilled garbage. “It’s just a dog,” Kravitz whispered. “It’s just a dog.”

Like it sensed his mounting terror, the thing lifted its head from the remains of the bag, and a second appeared from behind it. Dark, empty eyes glowed like reflective lights, the darkness around them almost growing as they growled and moved forward, lips pulling past broken teeth, their knuckles curled supporting their weight, ribs visible through taunt skin.

Kravitz ran.

He heard the sound of metal hitting a wall, and didn’t have to look back to know those, those _things_ were chasing him. They weren’t quiet – loud heaving, wet breaths echoed behind him with the scrap of nails against the slush of snow on the sidewalks.

 _‘I’m not going to be able to out-run them,’_ Kravitz realized with horror as the sounds pursuing him, deep snarling wet huffs of breath, began to get louder. _‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit!’_ He, he needed to hide. If he couldn’t out-run them, he needed to get out of sight. There! Kravitz made a hard right down the alley between a closed Laundromat and a boutique bridal shop, his shoes scraping hard on the old, loose gravel mingled with ice. There was a dull ‘thud’ behind him and Kravitz snuck a look over his shoulder, his heart stopping cold.

One of the things had slammed into the side of the wall, trying to turn as quickly as he did, but the other was framed against the entrance to the alleyway – it stood on two feet as it opened his mouth, unhinged from its jaw, it’s tongue flapping low on its chin, and roared before lowering itself to all fours again. _Fuck._

Kravitz turned right again, squeezing between a brick wall and a dumpster, and jolting harshly to a stop when his backpack caught on one of the truck handles of the dumpster. Cursing, he pulled his arms out of the straps and kept going, free only a moment too soon as he felt something swipe at his sleeve.

Hide. Damnit he needed to _HIDE_. Break line of sight, and hide. His lungs were beginning to hurt and there was a stitch in his side, his heart hammering against his ribcage. He turned right, and stopped dead.

There in the alley stood a tall, broad man. And in his hand, low at his side – it looked impossible – like, like a giant sword, wreathed in slowly burning flames. Kravitz choked on his breath and stumbled as he tried to reverse his direction backwards as the being wielding this crazy sword swung his head in his direction.

One of those THINGS slammed into his back and Kravitz fell with a scream, his hands scraping the ground as he tried to catch himself and felt a hot, putrid breath against his neck as the monster got a mouthful of his scarf.

And then, it screamed and vanished – bits of black ash and sand falling around Kravitz’s face as the man pulled the giant sword back and then threw something else at the next one entering the alley, similarly destroying it. “You okay, kid?” the man asked and Kravitz could have cried. He sounded human. SANE and human.

“What WAS that thing!?” Kravitz asked hysterically, accepting the hand up and wincing. He was definitely bleeding.

“Ghoul,” the man said grimly and held his hand palm out towards the second pile of black sand. The… the thing he’d thrown returned to his hand as if pulled by an invisible string. He didn’t seem to notice Kravitz gaping in shock and just turned to head down the alley. “A whole pack of them got through – and where there’s ghouls, there’s a ghast leading them.”

“Wait,” Kravitz hurried after him, “Wait, what?”

He never got his answer, because a shriek came from the roof as another thing-ghoul, launched itself with no regard for its body at Kravitz, slamming him into the wall. Kravitz’s head smacked into the brick, stunning him for a moment before the guy got a good stab in and turned that one to black sand too.

Kravitz breathed slowly through the pain while the man regarded him critically, the clothing he wore, and its color. “You haven’t been doing a little experimental necromancy, have you?” he asked too casually. “Dabbling in praying to Orcus?”

Orcus? Kravitz’s head shot up from where he’d been resting it against the brick. He’d never heard that name before, but it felt a dark and sour taste in his mouth. “Never,” he spat.

“Okay, okay kid.” The man held up his hands as innocently as he could while still holding a weapon in each hand. “Calm down, I didn’t mean to insult ya.” He paused, and then shifted the smaller weapon to his back, offering Kravitz his hand. “I’m Magnus Burnsides.”

Kravitz blinked rapidly. He knew that name. Everyone knew that name. “You’re – what? Are you really? Like, did your parents really hate you and name you after the hero, or are you really-”

The man – Magnus, laughed and lowered his hand, unconcerned at Kravitz not shaking it. “Yeah, that’s me. You’ve heard of me, huh?”

“Well, yes,” Kravitz said. “Everyone knows about Story and Song.” This didn’t make sense though. It had been 25 YEARS without contact between the two planes. And even then, there was no crossing over like this! Joaquin Terrero had written several long descriptions of his interactions with the other plane and the wizard Taco (there were massive debates on how to spell it) who gave him his incredible power. Those who had experienced Story and Song had sparked a whole new area of scholarship, trying to remember those moments of receiving the story, and the memory of it after.

“Well isn’t that something,” Magnus, THE Magnus, chuckled. “Hey kid, as fun as this is, we should really get you somewhere safer. You live around here?”

Kravitz shook his head and regretted the way that caused a headache to start pounding behind his eyes. “No, uh, no. I was on my way to the bus when,” he gestured vaguely back towards where the two piles of sand began to shift with the wind, almost sparkling in the dark.

Magnus nodded and turned, his footsteps heavy and sure as he moved. “Wrong place, wrong time, I get that. Well, let’s get you out of here, sound good?”

“Will you be okay?” Kravitz asked, and immediately felt stupid. This was MAGNUS (you know, if he was to be believed – that sword was pretty damn convincing) of course he could take care of himself. He just… he’d never heard of the Seven Birds being alone. Every book, every essay he’d been forced to read in school, every Story and Song holiday cartoon had shown The Birds as a solid unit until the moment of Forgetting, which was where the Story received that day…. ended.

There was no chance for Magnus to answer as four more shambling figures appeared at the alley’s mouth, breathing wetly. “At least they’re all in one place!” Magnus joked, but Kravitz could hear the underling tension in his voice. “Hey kid? Just run. This isn’t your fight – I got this.”

That seemed… horrible. Magnus had saved him from the ghouls, he couldn’t repay him by running away! “I can’t just-” Kravitz protested, but the ghouls charged, roaring and screaming, straight at Magnus, and then past him. Magnus caught two as they tried to move past him without attacking, disintegrating each to ash and sand. The other two slipped past him unchecked, roaring as they reached long, bony claws towards Kravitz who barely dodged one, and was raked across the back by the second, sending him to his knees before Magnus turned and managed to dispatch them both.

Kravitz pushed himself to his feet shakily and wrapped his arms around himself. He got the very distinct impression that Magnus was frowning. “They’re chasing you, aren’t they?” he said slowly. “They rushed right by me, to get to you.”

“I don’t know,” Kravitz said miserably.

“Magnus!” A gravelly voice came from the pendant around Magnus’s neck that suddenly lit up. “Magnus, you gotta come back, buddy. We can’t hold this for much longer.”

“Okay.” Magnus took a deep breath and looked around as though a solution would present itself. “Well, okay.” He looked at Kravitz and smiled apologetically. “I guess you’re coming with me.” He held up the pendant to his mouth. “We’re on our way back.”

“We?” the pendant asked, but Magnus dropped it to motion for Kravitz to move closer, which he did after a moment.

“My buddies are keeping our exit open,” Magnus explained as they started moving quickly towards the exit of the alley. “We just gotta get there, and then we’ll be fine.”

“We can’t just let these things stay here!” Kravitz protested. “That’s really irresponsible, and also, Joaquin Terrero is the only concept we have of magic. Those things will hurt a lot of people before someone figures out what to do.”

“Don’t worry,” Magnus said grimly as they stepped out into the sidewalk. “If you’re really what they’re after here, they’ll leave when we do.”

“Well THAT’S reassuring,” Kravitz tried to snark, hoping his voice didn’t shake. He understood the concept, logically, that if the ghouls were after him, they’d follow him away from here. The thing he didn’t understand was… why? Why would they be after him at all?

Kravitz followed Magnus across the empty road. Somewhere in the dark of the night, something else screeched, a horrible bloodless sound. In front of him, Magnus suddenly stopped and froze, sending Kravitz almost crashing into him. “What the hell?” Kravitz cursed. “Magnus, what’s wrong?” The man didn’t answer, and Kravitz’s irritation turned to concern as the scream came closer. “Magnus. Magnus!” Kravitz reached out and shook him, glancing nervously over his shoulder.

Then Magnus took a deep breath and shook his head. “Lost that saving throw. Damn paralysis. We lost ground. Go, just go. We’re almost there.” He took off again, making a beeline for – 

“The cemetery!?” Kravitz sputtered as he let Magnus boost him up over the iron gate. Locked at this hour because, you know, NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. “You’re doing this – this THING, in a cemetery?!” THIS one, of all places! “This is the cemetery of those who died during –”

“Yeah, we KNOW.’ Magnus at least had the insight to sound apologetic. “Do you know how hard it is to find places where the barriers between the planes are this weak? We searched for three months before finding this one, and it’s only just good enough. We didn’t really have a choice.” He hurried Kravitz past the cold, grey headstones that were arranged in neat little rows at the front. “Head straight for the back. My friends are there keeping the gate open. You just need to go through it. No matter what happens, no matter what you hear or see, don’t stop. I’ll be right behind you.”

Kravitz ran – weaving his ways between headstones and little memorials, ducking into the shadows of the mausoleum that housed the ashes of those too mangled by the Hunger to be recognized. He could feel it now – what did Magnus call it? A ghast? He could feel the cold it brought, its presence creeping like poison through the cemetery reaching out with freezing tendrils searching for him. With it, it brought more ghouls. He could see them sulking behind trees, sniffing and snarling like rabid wolves. Magnus fell further and further behind, stopping to slash at anything that got too close to them until Kravitz realized with a start that he’d lost sight of him in the dark.

He grit his teeth hard as he continued to run, resisting the urge to stop and look for the man. Around him, the very graves he passed seemed to moan and cringe in fear, pressing into the ground. “Protect this place, protect these souls,” Kravitz whispered, a mantra thudding in time to his heart and steps. These people deserved to be at peace. How dare these monsters come here? “Protect them. Protect them.”

Something scraped through the snow to his left and Kravitz stopped short and a ghoul overshooting its attack slammed into a tree. Too close! Kravitz gulped for air even as he began running again. There was no way running into a tree had killed that thing. Stunned it, IF he was lucky. Through the trees ahead he saw an odd green glow. That had to be it. He was almost there.

Something – it was like a whisper of dry leaves and rattling bones. Kravitz gasped and a slow, paralytic cold tried to wrap around his thoughts. No. No, no stopping. He shook his head firmly and pushed his legs harder, breaking around one more tall mausoleum and saw the source of the light.

Magnus had called it a gate, but it was a perfectly round cut in space, surrounded by green light. On either side was a person – one short, one tall, each focusing their attention on maintaining the doorway between the planes. As Kravitz watched, small tendrils of green energy sparked off the edges and disappeared, leaving the glow just a little less bright. Both individuals turned as he appeared, their faces thrown into shadow by the green light.

Kravitz hesitated, and was hit from behind, rolling towards them, snow in his face and hair before Magnus grabbed the flailing ghoul behind both arms and hauled it off him. “GO!”

He scrambled to his feet and ran for the gate. As he approached, he saw the taller man take one hand off the doorway and start to raise something in his direction – an umbrella. Three bolts of hot-white light streaked by his face as they passed, and Kravitz turned his head for just a moment. The other’s eyes were trained ahead, not even giving him a glance, his face bathed in green light. Were those his ears?

There was no resistance as Kravitz crossed over the threshold of the gate between planes, running a few more yards before he finally stopped, breathing hard and his heart pounding. He was in the clearing of some kind of forest. Dark, leafless trees stretched their sharp branches towards the moonless, dark sky. Supplies and a small wagon were arranged around an extinguished fire pit. Dinner dishes were piled on one of the logs close by, waiting to be washed. But he seemed to be the only living thing around. The only screams and shrieks he could hear from the monsters were more distant now from beyond the portal.

There was a sudden, brilliant burst of gold light from the other side of the gate, what looked like an angel with great wings holding a sword and shield, and then Magnus charged through, followed quickly by the short man, and finally the last, clutching his hat and holding his umbrella before him like a sword until the portal finished zipping close, leaving the sharp smell of ozone hanging in the air.

Everything was very quiet but for their ragged breathing.

The fire pit suddenly burst into life and Kravitz jumped back with a yelp as the, the (elf, he wanted to say elf) tucked the umbrella on his arm and tossed his hat onto a stump. “I can’t believe you fucking brought back a kid, Magnus. Do you want to go over again what we literally discussed about interacting with the locals?”

He was an elf. He had to be. Slender and fair, he walked with the determined, calculated light-footed grace of a predator. He looked misleadingly fragile and cold in a long blue winter coat trimmed in fur. But he was capable, and dangerous. Kravtiz was sure of it. 

And so the short one who pulled Magnus over and was examining a deep cut on his arm with a grumble – If Kravitz remembered the debate correctly which argued that the Seven Birds were not only magical, but mythical in nature – then he was a dwarf. He wore a vest with an odd texture Kravitz couldn’t place at the distance under a thick jacket, an eyepatch, and a pair of fuzzy green mittens on a rope around his neck.

“They were after him, Taako.” The dwarf yanked Magnus’s arm back when he tried to start gesturing. “Like, specifically after him. I couldn’t leave him there.” Three of the legendary Seven Birds.

Taako. Joaquin Terrero’s wizard. And Kravitz would bet money that meant the dwarf was Merle Highchurch. 

“So you kidnapped a native and got yourself beat up pretty good here.” Merle placed his hands above Magnus’s arm and they began to glow with a faint warm light. “Did you get anything else? You know, something useful?”

“Well, no,” Magnus admitted. Then he perked up. “Took out a whole bunch of ghouls though.”

“What a spectacular waste of time and spell slots,” Taako grumbled. Kravitz shifted his weight awkwardly, snow shifting under his feet, and he saw Taako’s ears swivel in his direction. “Well then.” The elf turned, his cloak swirling with him. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.” He stalked over and grabbed Kravitz by his jacket and hauled him towards him almost nose to nose. He was beautiful. This close, Kravitz could count the individual freckles on his cheeks. Their eyes met, and he felt more than heard Taako gasp and drop his hold, scuttling back several feet.

Magnus and Merle were at Taako’s side in an instant, and Kravitz noticed uneasily that Magnus had somehow produced a rapier. Where the hell was this man pulling all these weapons from!?

Kravitz slowly raised his hands apprehensively. He didn’t know what he did to alarm the wizard, but he wasn’t interested in dying on a strange plane because someone was jumpy and his friends automatically came to back him up.

“Uh, hey, guys?” Merle said slowly as he squinted at Kravitz. “Call me crazy, but don’t he kinda look like –”

“Mute!” Taako yelled, his voice pitching almost to a shriek as he swung his umbrella backwards in an arc at the dwarf. Whatever Merle was going to say was suddenly silenced (Magic. He was watching real, actual magic). Taako leveled a frantic gaze at Magnus while Merle scowled, flipped Taako off and just, kind of kept talking. “Magnus?”

“I didn’t get a good look at him,” Magnus apologized and thank goodness he put the rapier away. “We don’t all have dark vision, you know. There were ghouls. I was busy.”

Merle continued to rant soundlessly as Taako and Magnus stared at him.

Kravitz cleared his throat uneasily and gave them a wan smile as he slowly lowered his hands. “Uh, yes, about that.” Taako twitched like he’d be shocked. “Thank you. For saving me there. That was, well, yeah.”

Magnus broke into a cautious grin and held out his hand. “Don’t worry about it. Sorry, I didn’t catch your name there earlier.”

“Oh.” He hesitated and then politely took the hand offered. “It’s Kravitz.”


	2. Conceal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of all things Taako thought they'd find on the Plane of Thought, THIS? This was not even on his radar. And honestly, he doesn't know if he can handle it.

Taako couldn’t sit still. If he stopped, if he sat down, he’d have to stare at young man from the Plane of Thought that Magnus had thoughtlessly dragged into all of this with his painfully familiar (abet softer, younger) face with the wrong color eyes. His husband’s eyes (he refused to call him his ex –they didn’t break up) were red where this boy’s were blue and very odd for his coloring.

After getting his name and PUT THE SWORD AWAY MAGNUS – just because Taako had been surprised with his appearance didn’t mean his friends need to rush over ARMED – Magnus had sat the boy down on one of the less snowy logs and threw a blanket over him.

He looked a little too-wild in the eyes, rational warring with reality, his eyes sweeping from Magnus, to Merle, back to him, eyes lingering, and then begin their trajectory again, his hands tightening on the blanket when Magnus and Merle sat down across from him.

Taako had used the grumble of the boy’s stomach as his excuse to run away from the whole scene. Magnus and Merle could attempt to bring him up to speed with what was going on – it was Magnus’s fault he was here in the first place. There wasn’t much food to work with – some leftover rabbit stew and rice, but it was still within it’s time limit – just needed to be reheated, and it allowed Taako to eavesdrop.

Magnus was a good host, and rustically hospitable, so he stayed engaged with the boy, but every now and then Taako could feel Magnus’s eyes on him, checking on him to see if he was okay. Which cool, no, he was definitely not okay but Magnus needed to back the fuck off if he thought he was going to try and start mother-henning him. He’d come back over when he was good and ready to do it!

“It was almost twenty years ago,” Magnus explained, “The demon Orcus, Prince of the Undead, waged a blitzkrieg attack against the Raven Queen. She and all her reapers were either captured, or destroyed. In a moment of desperation,” Taako’s fingers tightened around the spoon in his hands, “One of her reapers sealed the Astral Plane so that Orcus couldn’t access the souls there. Because of it, Orcus didn’t get access to the Soul Sea, where souls go after death, or to the Eternal Stockage. The Astral Plane would have been a near endless source of energy for him – energy and souls to be corrupted into service to serve him. But the sealing also cut all living souls off from the Astral Plane, meaning that balance of life and death is out of harmony. Look at me.” He gestured to himself. “It’s been almost 20 years since the attack. I should be a lot older. But life is paused, or at least severely slowed down, and death as we knew it is missing.”

“The gods of Life are doing their best,” Merle added, shifting his weight with a heavy sigh. “But they can only do so much. Imagine, if you will, they are trying to hold up a ceiling that is crashing down. It’s all they can do to put their focus into keeping the current life stable – they don’t have much spare power to focus on new life. Everything suffers – plants, new births, aging. They only have a little power to focus on creating life when they’re hard pressed to sustain it.”

“Without access to the Astral Plane,” Magnus picked up, “The soul of anyone whose body dies quickly becomes the prey of Orcus. Without the Raven Queen and the natural order of death, anyone who dies, their soul becomes the property of him.” 

“Can you explain something to me?” Kravitz asked and fuck his voice sounded so familiar. If he wasn’t looking at him, and Taako was trying NOT to look at him, he’d think that was his husband sitting there around the fire with Magnus and Merle. Not… not… whoever this was. A stranger with a stolen face and stolen voice. The spoon snapped in Taako’s hand and he scowled. “I don’t understand. How can a goddess be killed?”

“Oh well, the demon Orcus wields a very special mace,” Merle explained, and Taako shut his eyes. “It’s a big, heavy, terrible thing, with a skull on the end.”

“There are very few things that can unmake a soul.” Taako surprised even himself by speaking, and he could feel all their eyes borring into his back. “Certain high levels of necromancy, and that thing.” He opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and brought the bowl of stew over to Kravitz. “It shatters souls.”

There was a crease between Kravitz’s eyes, which Taako knew meant he was thinking hard. At least, that’s what it meant when it appeared on his husband’s face.

“Shatters,” he echoed. One of the burning logs in the fire fell, sending sparks flying into air.

“The Raven Queen’s emissaries,” Magnus said carefully, hyper aware of Taako standing beside them, “Most of them were not used to being able to be permanently hurt. Most of them, they’re pure spiritual energy touched by the goddess. They’re used to being able to take hits, and just come back swinging once they’ve recovered. Even necromancers have to be extremely powerful to cause real harm to them, because, they’re undead – it’s holy and radiant magic that repels them. Not something necromancers tend to be very proficient in.”

Merle shook his head. “So many of them,” he echoed grimly, “They took a hit they didn’t know they couldn’t take. It was like they were made of glass, when that mace hit them. Some of the less powerful ones, they just splintered and collapsed.”

“You were there,” Kravitz said slowly, looking at each of them in turn. “You saw this happen.”

Taako glared daggers at Magnus, who shifted uneasily. “We, uh, yes, well we were, at the end of it. We received a distress call from some of our, uh, friends. It was too late though. When we arrived, the Astral Plane was already sealed, and the Raven Queen was gone.”

They had stumbled into a horrible scene. Bodies of the Queen’s emissaries broken and tossed around like broken toys, some of their still struggling, damaged souls being eaten like over ripe fruit. Taako had been frantic and inconsolable. Screaming for his sister, his brother-in-law, his husband, and only attracting the attention of more monsters hungry for living flesh.

“Why am I here?” Kravitz asked, and Taako took a deep breath, trying to banish his memories. “I’m not even from this place. I have SCHOOL tomorrow. Mrs. Beverly is going to be worried.” He slowly got to his feet as he spoke, taking a few steps towards where the gateway had been, and Taako set the bowl down roughly, getting his attention. His eyes looked so earnest. Fuck.

“Hate to be the bearer or bad news, my dude, but we’re not sending you back,” Taako said flatly, ignoring the way Kravit’s eyes narrowed at him. “Look, great things happen to the unworthy all the time. For whatever reason, you’ve been chosen. You’ve got a part to play in this now. We’ve been fighting this for almost two decades. If you’re the key to success, or fuck, even a chance of success, nope, I’m not sending you back. Deal with it.”

Magnus and Merle exchanged glances and Merle got up, tugging on Taako’s sleeve. “Calm down, Taako.”

“He is right though,” Magnus said to Kravitz. “Orcus is getting frustrated. When the Astral Plane was sealed, he didn’t pay it much attention. Or really, to the Material Plane. It gave us time. Time to warn the cities, time to gather people behind barriers, get them set up with holy items to ward off the undead hoards. By the time Orcus finished gloating over his win against the Raven Queen, he found us fortified, and ready to withstand his attacks. Without access to the Astral Plane, he’s got to fight and kill for every new soldier. And the resistance of the Material Plane is strong under the leadership of Lord Sterling. His clerics and paladins keep their undead wards strong, day and night.”

“I’m sensing a big ‘But’ coming here,” Kravitz said. “If you were really doing well, you wouldn’t have been looking for a way into my world for, what was it Magnus?” he fixed the fighter with a strong, sure stare, “Three months?”

Magnus nodded. “For the first few years, we thought maybe we’d find a way to defeat him. The cults of the Life gods looked for a champion. Someone representing Life to fight against Death. But all it did was to give some of our best to his side when they were defeated. Then, we thought we’d just wait them out. His undead need fresh lives to nourish them. It was proposed, if we all just stayed behind our barriers, we could starve them out.” He sighed. 

“But we’re starving ourselves out too. Resources are dwindling. Lord Stirling has had to send people outside the cities to grow food, or at least look for things that can be transmuted into edible food. And everywhere Orcus’s armies search for the living to add to their numbers. Three months ago-”

Taako remembered three months ago. Angus had managed a really good scrying spell working in tandem with Lucretia. They’d gotten a peek into Orcus’s plans – had seen the Plane of Thought. He hadn’t thought anything of it, it was just one more attempt to stick it to that bastard. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t, but what did they have to lose?

“Now. I saw those ghouls chase you down. I saw them move around me to try and get to you. You are somehow entwined in this.”

Kravitz rubbed his temples as Magnus stopped talking, his eyes looking pained and frustrated. “You don’t understand. I’m sympathetic to this whole thing, I really am. And if it was just me, or hell, if you waited until June when school is out, or just 5 more months, this would be a different story. But just disappearing like this – the cops are going to be called, my social worker is going to get involved. They’re going to think I ran away. It’s a horrible way to thank Mrs. Beverly for everything she’s done for me.”

Lawful good, right. 

“If you leave thousands will die,” Taako said flatly, and yup, he saw Kravitz freeze.

“You don’t know that,” he challenged, but Taako noticed he wasn’t meeting his eyes anymore.

“If you leave,” Taako stepped closer, and Kravitz swayed slightly like he wanted to take a step back but didn’t, “Another group of ghouls will find a way back over. This time, you won’t be so lucky to have Magnus save your ass. And they’ll kill anyone in their way to get to you. And then they’ll kill you. Ghouls have no finesse – they’ll tear you apart. Slowly. And anyone else who tries to stop them.” Another step closer. “Ghouls are corpse eaters. If there’s none available, they will make some.” One more, and he could feel the warmth from his cheeks as he leaned closer to whisper in his ear. “Stay here. HELP us. Not to be that guy but your plane kinda owes me, Homie.”

He could see the conflict in Kravitz’s eyes as he considered it, searching Taako’s face for truth, and then the slump in his shoulders. “And then, you’ll send me home?”

“Natch,” Taako said as carelessly as he could as his heart began to stop racing. “You help us, we kill that son of a bitch, and we’ll send you back home.” He held out his hand behind him, and Merle placed the bowl of stew into it. “You eat now.” Much to his horror, THAT made Kravitz smile, and it was too close, too similar – he shoved the bowl into Kravitz’s hands and hurried away, grabbing the dirty dishes to wash and just… get away.

Magnus only let him ignore everything about the whole situation until he and Merle had given Kravitz Taako’s sleeping roll because he didn’t need as much rest and would take first watch and the kid had fallen asleep in front of the fire. Taako was most certainly not looking at the way his long dark hair fell over his shoulder, or the way his chest rose and fell steadily.

“Taako.”

Taako buried his face deeper into the book he was certainly not reading and hadn’t been reading for a long time.

“Taako.”

“What, the ever loving _fuck_ do you want, Magnus?” He snapped the book closed and pointedly did not look over at Kravitz.

“I don’t know,” Magnus shrugged, “Any reason you decided to feed him that line about destiny and having a part of play and not tell him that he’s –”

“He’s what?” Taako dared him, his eyes narrowing. “He’s what? We don’t know shit.”

“We know he looks like your Kravitz,” Magnus said, his voice still soft and even and Taako just wanted to punch him in the face. “He shares his name, and Orcus is after him. Shouldn’t we arm him with this knowledge, Taako?”

“And say what?” Taako hissed, “We think there MIGHT be a chance that you’re a piece of my husband? What are you even suggesting? If you haven’t noticed, he’s human.” With the coloring of a half drow, right down to the light eyes. “He’s also _alive_. Merle’s wards would have repelled him if he wasn’t.”

Magnus, fuck him, wasn’t even phased. “So what do you think he is?”

Taako pulled at his hair in frustration. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe he’s just… reborn,” Merle suggested. “I know it’s not ideal, but think about it. Orcus probably doesn’t differentiate between something like memories. If he’s tracking the soul…”

“That would explain it,” Magnus agreed, “They’re chasing the last reaper’s soul. No mind that he’s not a reaper anymore.”

“Or it could be literally anything else,” Taako insisted. “He could be a mimic.”

“Taako.” And Magnus said it in THAT tone. “I think, we need to move forward with this, assuming Merle’s spell worked exactly how it should have.” 

“This fucking sucks,” Taako hissed. “He didn’t ask to be thrown into this, but what do we do? We can’t take him back. We can’t leave him in Neverwinter.”

“We COULD leave him in Neverwinter,” Merle disagreed. “Keep him behind the wards, nice and safe. He and Angus could be roommates or something. They can’t be too far apart in physical age.”

Magnus pressed a blue handkerchief into Taako’s hand, and he didn’t realize he was crying. “Taako,” he said softly, “His soul is safe. He may not be the person you remember, but he’s alive. That’s more than we dared hope for.” Taako wanted to be an asshole. To snap at Magnus and tell him to shut the fuck up, he had no idea how he felt!

Only, Magnus did. Magnus, quiet and patient with him now, knew losing love to violence. He knew that Magnus still thought about Julia every day, and hoped to be with her again someday.

“I’m not letting him out of my sight,” Taako snapped, and rubbed his forehead. Ugh. Right. Focus. “Kravitz is… was,” he swallowed past the hard lump in his throat. He never got used to the past tense, even after all this time. “A bard, originally. First time around, before the RQ. Let me see if I can teach this one some magic. I did well enough with Angus.”

Magnus nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah, that will do for now. Get him up to a place where he can protect himself, at the very least.”

“And we speak nothing of my Kravitz,” Taako insisted. “Nothing.” He looked at Merle pointedly. “No crummy memory problems on purpose, you hear me? I’m not joking. No testing him. No trick questions.” No… no using what he knew about the man from eight years living together to manipulate a kid into doing what he wanted.

“Alright Taako,” Magnus said gently. “We’ll do this your way, unless it becomes a danger to him. Then, we tell him everything.”

“Fine, I’ll give you that one,” Taako agreed. “If it’s an issue of his own safety, don’t even ask me first. Keep him alive.”

Magnus pat him gently on the shoulder. “We’ll contact Angus tomorrow. He should have a new direction to point us in soon.” Taako pushed him off and went over to sit on one of the logs, pulling one of the blankets high up around his shoulders, one eye on the dark forest, and one on his sleeping friends.

Just before dawn, Merle got up to take a piss and switched off watch with Taako. Normally, Taako would make no excuse to go to sleep, but…. That boy was using his bedding. He’d have to use Merle’s and BLEH he wasn’t about to go and lie down in old man smell. And with that boy, here, looking and sounding the way he did, Taako didn’t want to risk dreaming.

He had everyone’s silence, for now. However long THAT would last with Merle’s shitty memory, but Taako was going to take any sliver of chance that this wasn’t going to go to complete shit. He ended up sitting close to the fire, his nose buried under his blanket, trying to meditate. But… the boy was breathing. It was distracting. A soft, steady sound, his mouth partially open, his head pillowed on his arm… fuck he was distracting.

Even more, when he slowly began to wake. Oh, hatchi machi, he was waking up. He hadn’t seen anything so beautiful in so long. A deep intake of breath, a flutter of inky dark eyelashes, a hand rubbing over his face, sleepy and soft.

Blue.

From the lift of his eyelids reveal blue, disturbing and jarring from the soft, warm red Taako realized that he had been hoping for. Kravitz looked around slowly, confusion on his face as he examined his surroundings, and then saw Taako. A slow, easy, if awkward smile broke out over his face as he sat up a little, and Taako pulled his blankets closer around his face as he scowled, blushing up to his ears. Gods _DAMNIT_. He wasn’t going to DO this!

“Good morning,” Kravitz whispered, voice beautifully, achingly familiar and heavy with sleep.

“It’s fucking cold,” Taako snapped, and bustled about to his feet. “You hungry, Kay-man?”

“A little,” Kravitz said cautiously, getting to his feet and copying Taako with wrapping a blanket around his shoulders. Taako’s blanket – purple with gold stars. It looked ridiculous. And perfect. Taako looked away sharply.

Merle looked over as they both moved and poured them both a cup from the pot he had boiling over the fire. “My own special brew,” he told Kravitz as he gave it a cautious sniff. “The trick is to grind some hazelnuts in with the coffee. Gives it a little depth.”

“Thank you.” Kravitz took a little sip, and then pulled back in surprise. “It is good.”

Merle chuckled and pat him on the knee. “Taako isn’t the only one with good ideas when it comes to food, kid.”

“You think a sausage on a stick is revolutionary,” Taako scoffed as he pulled a comb out of his bag and began to slowly comb his hair out. “One good idea doesn’t make you a genius.” He held the comb out to Kravitz. “You next.”

Kravitz blinked at him but then set his coffee down and took the comb, pulling it through his dark hair while Taako definitely wasn’t thinking about putting his fingers through it, and then handed it back. Taako pulled out all the hairs from the teeth meticulously and lay them down in his frying pan.

“Um.”

Taako ignored him and spread the hair out evenly, ignoring how the black and gold mingled.

“Um, excuse me, Sir-”

“Don’t EVEN start that shit,” Taako warned.

“… Taako,” Kravitz tried again, and yeah, that really wasn’t a hell of a lot better, hearing his name on his lips. “Why, why are you putting our hair onto that pan.”

“Pretty sure Magnus told you that supplies are painfully low.” Taako pulled out a small wand from his sleeve. “So, we do what we have to. Hair is organic matter. And, well.” He gestured to himself, but Kravitz expression just grew more concerned. “You know.” Taako repeated himself, frowning. But Kravitz shook his head.

“No, I’m sorry, I know what?”

“Transmutation wizard,” Taako said, gesturing grandly to himself again. “Did you sleep through Story and Song? Everyone knows it.”

“Oh.” Kravitz smiled a little. “I wasn’t born then.”

He…. Right. Taako huffed and turned his attention back to the pan. “WELL, Kason-”

“That’s not my name-”

“Karlotta,” Taako continued, “I’m the world’s best transmutation wizard. So, we’re turning this inedible organic material, into an edible organic material.” A quick spell and there were several slices on raw bacon on the pan. “Come take a look,” Taako encouraged, “I dare you to notice a difference.”

“Does it taste any different?” Kravitz asked. Taako shrugged.

“If it does, it’s been long enough that we’ve forgotten.” Taako summoned a mage hand to hold the pan over the fire while he dug through his bag and pulled out a couple of unmatched eggs. Kravitz was staring intently at the mage hand, his eye distant. “You watched me change your hair into fatty breakfast meat, and its mage hand that’s got your attention?” Taako scoffed. “Honestly, that’s a cantrip.”

“Cantrip?” Kravitz repeated.

“Easy shit, doesn’t even use up a spell slot.” Taako paused. Right. He turned slowly. “You know,” how best to approach it. “I bet you could do magic, if you wanted. Just because you couldn’t on the Plane of Thought,” he rushed when he saw a look of protest starting to form on Kravitz’s face, “Doesn’t mean you can’t do it here. What harm can it do to try?”

Magnus was awake now too. Taako could feel him watching him from where he’d inched over to get a cup of coffee from Merle.

“Tell me there’s not something that stirs your soul,” Taako said. How did he make Kravitz realize it without telling him it? “Like… something wild fills you when looking at a burning fire. The green of the forest reaches out to you, so loud it’s like you can hear it. It fills you with power, with longing, with potential.” Come on.

“Music.”

Bingo. Another lifetime, and it’s still music.

Kravitz leaned his head to the side a little, studying Taako. “I love music. Like it’s a living piece of me.”

“I can use that,” Taako said, and rolled up his sleeves. “We’re going to eat first and then on our way back to Neverwinter, we’ll start you on some magic. Bards and wizards don’t share every cantrip, but enough to get you started.”

“Speaking of getting you started,” Magnus said, “We should also get you trained in some basic defense. The roads are dangerous from here to Neverwinter. Merle puts up a good ward against undead when we stop, but it’s no good on a moving target.”

“We should also get you some new clothes,” Merle added. “No offense, but you don’t exactly look like you’re from around here.”

“Taako, you can help with that, right?” Magnus offered. “And then we can pick up new things for him in Neverwinter.”

“Please Taako, use up all your spell slots playing dress up,” Taako grumbled, wiping his hands off after he transmutated the eggshells into another, smaller egg. “Okay, let’s see what we’re working with. Drop the blanket, bobula.”

Kravitz hesitated and Taako snapped his fingers. “You’re too pretty to be shy. Now. Before the eggs finish. They’re real, except for the last one, and you do NOT want them to overcook.”

There are certain things that you never forget about a person, if you don’t have a fucking void fish messing with your head. Certain things that are imprinted into memory, when details grow fainter. Taako was struck with a sharp wave of nostalgia when Kravitz threw the blanket back off his shoulders in one big flourish - how dramatic his husband could be. He quashed the intense longing by hollering for Magnus, and grabbing Kravitz by the wrist, turning him around so that he and Merle could see the mess that his jacket was. Deep slashes through the material and to the shirt under. “You didn’t think to tell us he might need healing!?”

“Oh, yeah.” Magnus sunk behind his coffee cup. “I might have gotten distracted there… hey Merle…”

“You’re impossible!”

“Hey, Taako, calm down,” Kravitz said, “I’m okay. Really, I nearly forgot all about it until now.”

“You.” Taako whirled around and prodded Kravitz in the chest. “You’re in big trouble.” Nearly. He didn’t forget, he just didn’t bring it up. “If something is wrong, you speak up, comprende?”

… did that little shit just roll his eyes at him!?

Probably, because Magnus sounded like he was choking as he tried not to laugh.

“I changed my mind.” Taako gave Kravitz a shove towards Merle. “You get checked out by the cleric first, I’m going to handle breakfast, and THEN we’ll worry about your duds, capiche?” Taako stalked back to his frying pan without waiting for an answer and took a few deep breaths while listening to Merle promise a very apologetic Magnus that most of the wounds were superficial.

They should have looked him over last night. Taako had watched him get tackled by a ghoul, just outside the reach of the gate. He’d been distracted. Which okay, it was true but it wasn’t a great excuse.

Taako flipped his bacon and took a deep breath. He… he didn’t know if he could do this. “Come eat.” He moved the pan off the heat and let Magnus deal with finding Kravitz an extra fork.

They all crowded around the frying pan, and with another full-sized adult it was a little bit of a squeeze, but Taako placed himself between Magnus and Merle so that he didn’t have to have his knees brushing Kravitz’s.

As soon as the boys finished eating Taako sent Merle to wash the few dishes they’d used and turned to look Kravtiz up and down slowly. “Okay, I can work with this.” He’d just… stay basic. Sturdy, functional, warm. Still… he’d never forgive himself if he dressed this beautiful young man in something lame. Black pants, tucked into black boots laced up to the knee. Loose black shirt, soft against his skin, under a thick black jacket to his thighs, secured around the waist by a black belt. Just a little drama. A heavy black cape that hung from one shoulder, the opposite covered in black leather, keeping it in place. 

“There.” Taako said, picking up the deep red scarf and wrapping it around Kravtiz’s neck. “Now they’ll only stare at your face, gorgeous.” He paused. “And your body. And your eyes. Your killer bone structure.” Okay, he was getting distracted and Kravitz… was… blushing? He turned sharply and grabbed his blanket off the ground. “Magnus! Start packing!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the kind support! I’m looking at maybe being a Sunday updater, but we’ll see. I’ve always had a fondness for Wednesday. Right now, according to my outline we’re looking at 12 chapters, but we may end up with a few more as we go along.


	3. Lessons

Kravitz had to say, of all the things that had happened in his life, nothing had prepared him for… this. Just… this. Crossing planes, meeting three of the Seven Birds. Being told he was somehow connected to this demon wreaking havoc on the balance of life and death on this plane, but no one could explain just how connected… it was a lot. And honestly, he couldn’t say that this had been at all enjoyable.

He’d woken up and had really half expected, half hoped, that this would be some kind of weird fever dream. Instead he had caught Taako staring at him and then pretending like he hadn’t been. Kravitz had just made the executive decision to ignore that and go along with pretending like it hadn’t happened. It was a lot easier just fake like he didn’t notice that they were all being a little weird about him than try to address it right now. It was too early for that.

So instead he hung out with Taako while he sipped his coffee and watched him do some more actual MAGIC. The whole concept of magic and that Taako thought he could do it too, that was also something Kravitz was trying not to think too hard about. He always knew, logically, that magic was real and out there beyond their plane. 

He knew that there were scientists back home devoted to trying to see if they could find a way to breech that and bring magic to their plane. Lots of people had stupidly blown their labs and themselves up in the pursuit. Trying to attain something that was not meant to be in their world. It was something more theoretical than realistically attainable, but there were plenty who believed THEY were smart enough to crack into the mysteries of magic. And here was Taako, THE Taako, Joaquin Terrero’s Taako, just casually saying that Kravitz could probably cast magic, just by being here.

It was… it was just a lot. 

Kravitz was also trying not to think too hard about Mrs. Beverly. How she must have sat up waiting for him to come home last night after his lesson, wrapped up in her foam green bathrobe and her husband’s house slippers. How as eleven, and then midnight approached, she must have gotten worried, called the music store even though they were closed. Had she called the police by now? Reported him missing? Surely she knew he wouldn’t have run away from her. He wanted to believe, she’d know that. 

She had to know that. She would fight with the police who would insinuate that he was a runaway. Maybe someone would find his backpack in that alley. Or his blood on gravel. Was that better? For her to think he was murdered on his way home from music lessons that she had so kindly given him. He hoped they used a nice picture of him and not something that made him look like trouble. The neighbors would probably be happy about it either way.

Somehow, that thought made it even worse. That someone was taking enjoyment out of Mrs. Beverly’s hurt and worry. It was just wrong.

Not for the first time, as Merle healed his back where the ghouls had slashed him through his clothes, Kravitz wondered if there wasn’t a way to send a message across planes. Just to let Mrs. Beverly know that he was okay, even if couldn’t come back right now. He was okay, and in safe hands. Well, safe-ish hands. Hands of those who where invested in keeping him alive.

The Birds of Story and Song.

Of course, they were nothing like what he had expected. Nothing like the holiday specials would suggest. Noble and good men and women who sacrificed and fought and gave life after life to try and stop the Hunger.

They were, well. They were a lot more chaotic than he expected. More rude, more loud, and less eloquent than Kravitz had been led to believe. The jury was still out if this was better.

Magnus seemed very straight forward, and Kravitz liked him. He had a kind of simple sense of purpose along with a dose of good-heartedness that was refreshingly uncomplicated. Magnus had jumped in the driver’s seat of the wagon after he’d packed it (mostly by himself. When Kravitz realized that Taako wasn’t helping and that Merle wasn’t really the best height to move things into the wagon, he’d helped Magnus pack), and had told Kravitz cheerfully that the horses names were Buttercup and Miranda.

Kravitz lingered at the side of the wagon and watched Taako finish cleaning up their campsite, mostly with the aid of Mage Hand. There was some kind of tension in the way the elf moved. Elegant, but jerky. Something was very wrong with that elf. It was like… like someone trying to waltz to a four beat. He was out of sync.

Kravitz leveled a solemn gaze at Mangus. “Where are the others,” he asked. Magnus froze for a moment before giving him the fakest smile Kravitz had seen in awhile. It was the kind people give kids when they want to pretend nothing is wrong while secretly signing paperwork to send them away.

“Where are who?” Magnus’s voice rose several octaves – which was a little odd. He didn’t even know what Kravitz was asking, but he was all ready to lie to him. He definitely had SOMETHING he wasn’t sharing.

“I saw Seven Birds,” Kravitz quoted quietly. He’d noted the way Taako’s ears moved towards sound, sensitive as a cat and this wasn’t a conversation for him. “The Twins. The Lover. The Protector. The Lonely Journal Keeper. The Peacemaker. And the Wordless One.” Everyone memorized it in like, third grade. “That’s Seven, but there are only Three here. Where are the others?” 

Mangus looked around like he was looking for help. Kravitz sighed. “Look, I’m asking you because from everything I’ve read, Taako is one of the Twins. And I don’t want to be insensitive and ask him directly if something…. Happened.”

“Well…” Magnus finally jumped down from the wagon seat, rubbing his hand over his beard and giving his sideburns a nervous scratch. “Man you’re insightful. But, also, you’re right. We’re down to Five Birds these days. Lucretia and Davenport are in Neverwinter, you’ll probably meet them once we’re there.”

He was silent for a long moment, but Kravitz waited. His patience could take it, could wait until Magnus was ready to talk again. “Taako…” Magnus finally began again, sadness heavy in his voice, “Lost everything when Orcus attacked. Both Lup and Barry were working for the Raven Queen as her emissaries. His sister, her husband. We never found their bodies, but honestly, I think we all know, deep down, if Lup was okay, she would have found a way to reach out to Taako. Revenge is what keeps him going these days. Revenge and hope against hope that somehow, somewhere, his sister is still out there.” Magnus shrugged the helpless gesture of a man who knows they can’t help their friend heal from their pain. “Who knows. But it keeps him going, keeps him moving forward. I’m not going to take that hope away from him.”

Kravitz nodded slowly, filing it away. There it was. Taako had experienced extreme loss with the attack of Orcus. He was a man with nothing else to lose but his remaining friends, and his life. It was a dangerous, reckless place to be.

“Hey are we just standing around or are we going to get out of here?” Merle asked, trudging over. “The ward’s timing is almost up.” Kravitz side stepped him and nodded, hauling himself up into the cart and then extending a hand down to help the dwarf up into the wagon.

Merle was a little odd. Kind of a mix of crusty old man and dotty old grandfather. He both frustrated and confused Kravitz and he had the urge to just kind of poke him with a stick, just to see what he would do. He was crunchy, and grumbly, and maybe not the brightest, but Kravitz placed himself as far from Merle as possible in the cart without really realizing he was doing it until Taako threw his bag up into the wagon and pulled himself in. “Let’s blow this popsicle stand,” Taako grumbled, folding himself up and pulling his fur lined hood up over his ears.

Taako was… confusing. Half the time he acted like Kravitz had the plague, which was fine, he was kind of used to that, but then the other half? He was right up in his space like personal boundaries was a kind of laundry detergent. When he wasn’t overtly making comments about him that is. Which was, by the way, very new and weird. Kravitz didn’t exactly go out of his way to attract attention. When Taako wasn’t doing that, he was either yelling or scolding him. Or just yelling or scolding in Kravitz’s general direction.

Taako had a lot of rough edges. He was sarcastic and blunt and sharp. And beautiful. Kind of breathtakingly beautiful. And sad. A song played on an untuned piano, faking it okay except for where the damage grave away the sharp edges behind the façade. Kravitz wanted to know more. Wanted to help if he could.

But he took a deep breath, and told himself to let it go. This was all temporary anyway, and this was TAAKO of Story and Song fame. He was an interplanar HERO who was also apparently had a metaphorical ax to grind with the Demon Prince of Death. The last thing he needed was some half grown kid trying to butt his way into his business and offer something as vague as ‘help’. GOD were they there yet?

Now as they left the sanctuary of the campsite, Kravitz could feel a crushing wrongness of this plane he’d found himself on. Inside Merle’s ward, things had been kept in a weird kind of status. Now, without that protection they were at the full mercy of plane without natural laws of life or death. Everything felt too still. The air didn’t even seem to move. He was glad for the alterations that Taako had made to his wardrobe and pulled the cloak closer around his shoulder, almost copying Taako’s pose, burying his nose in his scarf.

The trees they past were mostly bare – no leaves, no evergreens even. Just endless, dark bare limbs stretching towards a pale sun. The snow was unmelting, packed in a thin pathway worn through the forest. The horses’ hooves made the only sound, a sharp clopping noise, their tackle unadorned by any kind of bells or extra metal bits to signal their movement. It felt like they were sneaking through the world, trying to remain unnoticed by anything.

Well, of course, quiet, except for the chatter between Magnus and Merle. Taako had been suspiciously silent since they started out, but Magnus and Merle chatted animatedly between themselves. Actually, they were talking an awful lot for how dangerous this all seemed. Almost like nervous chatter just to fill the void of silence around them. “So, where are we going again?” Kravitz asked, drawing their gaze. Even Taako peeked out of his cloak a little.

“We’re going to Neverwinter to see Angus,” Magnus supplied. “He’s one of Taako’s former students, and one of the smartest people we know. It was with Angus’s help that we were able to find that weak spot in the first place. So, we need to go back, report what happened, let him add that to his little brain, and then figure out what our next move is.”

“Mmmm.” Kravitz leaned back closing his eyes a little as he thought. “Meaning, you’re out of ideas again since last night’s attempt failed to turn up anything but me.” And it really sounded like he’d bought more problems than help.

“Now look here,” Merle began to complain, but Kravitz smiled a little and opened his eyes again.

“It’s fine. I thought about it this morning. I might not know what’s going on, really, and this isn’t my plane. But, I’m here now. And it wasn’t your plane, Taako, when you helped Joaquin Terrero. It’s all our Planar System. And maybe this friend of yours can help me figure out how to send a message back, so that I can let Mrs. Beverly know I’m okay. So, alright. I guess I’m doing this.”

There was a long pause from the other three, and then Taako dramatically rolled his eyes. “Gross! Sincerity! Get out. I’m tossing you overboard. You can walk to Neverwinter.”

Kravitz leaned his head back and laughed, and it broke the weird tension. Even Merle seemed to calm down and lean his arms over the back of the wagon. “Alright, no more, I promise.” Kravitz stood up, waving a little back and forth as he got his balance on the moving cart. “Hey Taako. Teach me some magic?”

~

Taako was going to kill him. No, more accurately, Kravitz was going to kill him. With those shy smiles, and odd laughter that sounded like it was out of practice. He was so cute and pretty and Taako was in so much danger here. Look, Kravitz even looked a little nervous around MERLE of all people, but wasn’t afraid of give Magnus shit.

Not entirely positive that he wasn’t already under some kind of spell, Taako got to his feet and ignored the way Magnus glanced over his shoulder at them. “Rule one of magic, don’t hit the driver,” Magnus called.

“Certainly not on purpose,” Kravitz agreed, and opened and closed his hands a few times. “Okay, so, how do I do this?”

“Bards. Music. Right.” Taako gave himself a shake and recentered. He was a pretty damn good teacher, natch. He could do this. “It’s a different kind of focus for magic than what a wizard uses. I have used wands before, and I’ve got a really killer Krebstar. But,” he hefted his umbrella onto his shoulder, “This is my brand. I got a new umbrastaff made after I broke my sister out of the old one-”

“Wait, what?”

“But Bards are a little more freeform,” Taako continued like Kravitz hadn’t just interrupted him. Or had tried to. “I’ve even heard of Bards who work with written material – poetry and shit. More common is an instrument. But unless you’ve got a ukulele hidden somewhere,” and the look Kravitz gave him said no, “Your best bet here is going to be vocal. I’ve met a Bard who was able to cast by Inspirational Speech. Weirdo. But you specifically said music. So congrats, bobola, you’re going to sing for us today.”

Which was going to be fine for Kravitz. Taako had heard his husband sing, hundreds, thousands of times. Hot, deadly, well dressed, AND talented, he was everything Taako loved in a man. And he missed him so much.

But this one, he balked and looked around nervously. “Sing?” Kravitz repeated, “Like, out loud?”

“Oh I’ll sing for you!” Merle offered loudly, “Oh Hello! My name is Elder-”

“STOP, I’m begging you!” Taako screamed. “No more of that one! Pick a new song. ANY other song. I’m so sick of that song. It’s your go to every single time!” Merle scowled, but it made Kravitz smile a little and Taako whirled back around to him. “Okay, we’ll pick the spell first. When it comes to cantrips, anything you can do, I can do. Except Vicious Mockery. But anything else.” Oh boy. “Light,” Taako decided for them. “We’ll start with Light. Let’s see.” Taako kicked around some of their junk in the wagon until he pulled out a pair of horrible, muddy boots crusted with matter of all kinds. Good enough. “One for you, one for me.”

“You seem very sure that I’ll even be able to do this,” Kravitz hedged. “The only magic on my plane came from you. Why should I be able to do this, just because I’m here? There’s no logic to that.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try,” Taako lied through his teeth and cocked his hip to the side, arms crossed over his chest. “Besides, you’ve got something better to do while we ride to Neverwinter? You wanna examine that existential crisis instead?”

Kravitz huffed, his breath making a big puff in the cold air. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

“Good boy,” Taako pat him on the head and he _probably_ shouldn’t have done that. He cleared his throat again and picked up one of the boots.

“Hey that’s mine!” Merle protested. Taako ignored him.

“Now the incantation is very easy. You just focus annnnd, Light.” Taako touched the tip of the umbrastaff to the boot and it light up with a warm purple light. “See? Easy peasy. You go.”

Kravitz eyed the boot suspiciously and held it out in front of him by the shoelaces like it was going to bite him. Which was fair. One time Merle potted a rather aggressive snapping plant in a shoe to transport it, and Magnus had gotten his hand bit while he was moving things around looking for some odd and end that had been packed too close to Audrey. Because of course Merle had named the damn thing. “Light,” Kravitz said rather unenthusiastically.

And nothing happened.

Well no shit nothing happened. Taako put his hands on his hips. “Okay first rule of Magic? After don’t hit the driver? You’ve got to mean it. What even was that? That was the worst attempt at Light I’ve ever seen. And I used to teach kids. SECOND, I said you’ve got to sing it. Hum it if you have to, but you’ve got to have a little something behind that.”

“I feel stupid,” Kravitz complained. “And Merle is judging me.”

“No he’s not,” Taako scoffed.

“Yes I am,” Merle added unhelpfully.

Taako kicked him in the shin. “Ignore him, he’s old. Now. Try again. But with music this time.” Kravitz gave him an unconvinced frown that Taako absolutely wanted to pinch and pull into a smile. Instead, he stepped behind Kravitz and put his hands on his elbows, drawing them closer towards his body, ignoring how Kravitz seemed to flinch. “Sing, pretty boy.”

He felt more than heard Kravitz take a deep breath and let it out slowly. And he finally started to hum. It wasn’t singing, but it was music. At first, nothing happened. Taako kept his hands still and where they were. “Keep going,” he said quietly, not wanting to disturb Kravitz’s concentration. It wasn’t a song he recognized, and that was probably for the best. The space around Kravitz slowly changed and felt charged with magical potential, buzzing around him ever so slightly. “Just picture the boot in your mind, and say the word.”

There was another long pause, and for a moment Taako thought Kravitz was going to chicken out. But finally, softly, “Light.” And the boot started to glow a gentle, sapphire blue.

“Hey,” Taako gave Kravitz’s arm a slight squeeze, “Open your eyes, dingus. You did it.” He tried not to sound too proud. It was a dumb Light spell. He and Lup could do these in their sleep – didn’t even need to because hello, Dark Vision. It was so easy that Taako doesn’t even really need to be holding the umbrastaff or any focus at all – he mostly did it for Kravitz to try and make him more comfortable with the idea of magic.

“I did it,” Kravitz echoed, awe in his voice. He turned in Taako’s hold and was suddenly entirely too fucking close. “Look Taako! I did it.” He was so CUTE. It reminded him of the first time his husband had convinced the mangy, hungry, tom cat in their neighborhood to let him pet him. It was a big old NOPE. He didn’t need these memories right now.

“Don’t get too excited,” Taako pushed himself away a little too quickly and dropped his shoe on Merle’s head. “Like I said, it’s a cantrip. There are a lot more useful spells. But, there you go. You CAN do this. Proof. Bam. You’re welcome.” Kravitz opened and closed one of his hands and looked at the shoe again, still glowing, turning it around slowly with an open look of wonder on his face.

“And that’s just the beginning,” Taako found himself saying, “I can teach you so many other spells. Cooler spells. Here.” Taako reached into his pack and dug around until he pulled out a few lose sheets of paper. Good enough. A quick transmutation spell and he handed Kravitz a beautiful book bound in black leather with gilded pages. “Open it.”

Kravitz ran his hand gently over the cover first, his eyes admiring but there was a crinkle in the corner that betrayed a nervousness. “I can’t accept such a gift, Taako.”

“Shut up, this is easy for me. It’s practically child’s play.” Taako approached more carefully this time, not getting too close, and opened it to the first page where the Light spell was written out in his own handwriting with the description of the spell and duration details. “If you’re learning magic, you’re going to need your own spell book to keep track of what you can do. Don’t be like Merle and forget half the useful stuff.”

“Hey!”

“You’re a shitty Cleric and you know it!” Taako shot back, snapping the book closed and pushing it into Kravit’s chest, ignoring his grunt of protest. “Don’t try and deny it, Merle.”

Any other idiotic babbling was cut off by a chilling screech somewhere in the distance that drained the embarrassment and color in his ears and cheeks right out of him. He knew that scream. Next to him, Kravitz failed to look suitably horrified and leaned his head to the side curiously. “What was that?” he asked, making a move towards the end of the cart if Taako hadn’t grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back like a bad puppy. Kravitz squirmed in his hold and turned those way to earnest and naïve blue eyes on him, confused. “Someone could need help!”

“Afraid not,” Magnus said grimly, “If anything, we’re the ones who are going to need the help. That’s the call of the Banshee Queen – one of Orcus’s Generals. She’s responsible for the collapse of Rockport’s wards and walls a few months ago, but haven’t heard of her being down this way in awhile.”

“Sit down, shut up, and hold on, Kameron,” Taako said sternly. “Magnus, punch it.”

“But you’re the Birds,” Kravitz said, sitting obediently as Buttercup and Miranda began to gallop down the road at what felt like an entirely unsafe speed, “Even a General of,” and Taako noticed that he didn’t say the name and just made a gesture towards the woods. Was that a thing? Should he take note of that or had Kravitz just forgotten the name? He was PROBABLY reading too much into it. “Shouldn’t even just three of you be able to take her?” He paused. “Also, that’s not my name.” Taako ignored that helpful addition.

“Where the General is, her army follows,” Magnus said grimly, “Maybe the three of us could take her, _MAYBE_ , but not her and her army. And we’ve got you now.”

“Honestly,” Merle added unhelpfully, “You’re probably the reason she’s here. After we beat back the hoard last night, they probably realized they needed to send in the big guns to retrieve you. OW!” Taako glared daggers at Merle, ignoring the concerned look on Kravitz’s face. “What?!” Merle protested, rubbing his head where Taako hit him. “Kid already knows that ghouls were there chasing him. Might as well know that they’re going to keep coming after him with bigger badder things.”

“Yes, yes,” Kravitz agreed, waving off all of their concern about him. “But I didn’t want that to mean you are all in danger because of me.”

“Just let them try,” Taako growled, his eyes trained behind them, his ears taunt, listening for anything that might signal an ambush. “I’ll kill them all. Again. I’ll double kill them.” They were going to have to get through him to get to Kravitz, and his friends. He wasn’t losing anyone else! 

“Don’t worry, Kravitz, we’re professionals,” Magnus said. And for a moment, Taako thought that was nice and helpful. But of course he had to keep going and open his lug mouth again. “Although, we probably should have gone though those basic weapons lessons before we left Merle’s ward this morning,” Magnus muttered, passing a rapier to Merle who dropped it in Kravitz’s lap. “Here ya go. Pointy end goes in the enemy.”

“Fuck you guys,” Taako complained and placed himself behind Kravitz so that he could keep an eye on everything. Basic weapons training was probably more useful than casting light, if he was going to be honest. But Kravitz had been curious about it, and it was…. nice. It was cute to see this baby version of his husband explore magic for the first time. He’d met Kravitz as a fully envisioned, powerful creature of the Death Goddess. He’d enjoyed the open curiosity and astonishment on his face over a dumb Light spell. He’d almost forgotten how fucking dangerous this world was for him right now.

In fact… Taako placed his hands on Kravitz’s shoulders, feeling him start in surprise at the contact. Again. And he filed it away like a sharp piece of glass to examine later. Kravitz either was not used to being touched, or he was accustomed to being touched with violence. He liked neither, but didn’t have time for it right now. “Mage Armor,” Taako cast, ignoring the look he knew that Magnus was shooting over his shoulder. Infact, “Keep your eyes on the damn road, Magnus.” He gave Kravitz’s shoulder a pat and let go, moving just a little so that he could see the nearly invisible shield around him gleam purple. “It’s not much, but it will help if we’re attacked.”

The shriek came again, but fainter. They were putting good distance between her and themselves. She was fast. Her army of ghouls was less so. What didn’t help was hearing the howls echo her call. First one, and then a chorus. 

“This is not our DAY!” Taako raised his umbrella. “What's next, two Generals in one place?" Fuck these guys. “Though, if they did run into two Generals, maybe they’ll do them all a favor and fight each other – Orcus’s Generals didn't do teamwork. 

“It’s not right!” Magnus shouted over his shoulder. “All dogs should go to heaven! Not be made into monsters.”

Taako’s sharp eyes noticed movement in the woods behind them, shadows running between the trees. They… must be really desperate to get ahold of Kravitz, he realized with a sinking feeling. Most of Orcus’s undead were weaker during the day. It was why they’d felt confident enough to pull up their wards and head to Neverwinter after breakfast. Even a weak sun was still sunlight. It should have been safe-ish to move Kravitz.

He looked down at Kravitz, his hands clutching the hilt of the rapier that he most certainly didn’t know how to use, his knuckles almost white with how hard he was holding it, and made the decision. “Merle, switch with Maggie. You’re also proficient with animals, keep them running. Magnus, grab your bow.”

“You want me to shoot them from a moving wagon?” Magnus asked, a little too excited. “I’m only okay with the bow, Taako.”

“We don’t want them to get within striking range,” Taako reasoned, “The more we can take out at a distance, the better.” Magnus might be more effective taking a swing at their heads as they jumped at the wagon, but it put Kravitz at greater risk. Besides, if Kravitz was the target it was going to be a hell of a lot harder to keep a pack of hell hounds from him if they all tried to attack at once when within range.

“I count at least eight!” Magnus held his quiver out in Taako’s direction so that he could absently change all the arrows to silver points, and then fit an arrow to his bow, pulling back the string taunt. “Merle, we’re reminding you-”

“No fire for hell hounds, I know I know. Geeze you make a mistake ONE TIME!”

Taako willfully ignored him and prepared Magic Missile at a good, high level. He could see the hell hounds better now, their fiery breaths trailing smoke behind them in the cold air as they ran. “In range!” Taako warned and let lose the brilliant white bolts of Magic Missile, each finding their mark, natch. It wasn’t enough to take any of them down though. “These are hardy fuckers,” Taako complained, watching Magnus’s first arrow fall short. “Don’t waste those!”

“I thought I had it!” Magnus insisted and Taako rolled his eyes. “Second action,” he grinned big as he pulled a second arrow back. “Readying action when they are close enough.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Taako almost jumped out of his stylish but functional shoes at the sound of Kravitz’s voice, soft behind him. “No b-boychick,” Taako took a deep breath, trying to focus. FOCUS. “Tres Horney Boys got this. You sit there pretty and stay out of trouble.”

Kravitz huffed and Taako found himself grinning, wide and sharp. “Just for now,” he amended, leveling his umbrella again towards the Hell Hounds. “We’ll get you trained up into a baller bard yourself in no time. Gotta walk before you can fly, babe.” He swung his umbrella again and fired off a second round, Magnu’s readied arrow following close behind it, hitting one of the Hounds square between the eyes, dropping it into the snow.

“We’ve got this. And we’re going to win. Nothing is going to stop us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning everyone - there will be no Sunday update next week because I will be out of town. Thank you everyone!


	4. Divinate

If Kravitz thought watching Taako cast Mage Hand was amazing, it was nothing compared to, to actually casting magic himself! Taako claimed it wasn’t much. Just a Light spell. But it was a SPELL. And it was all his. Something inside him, channeled into actual magic. It was unbelievable! And Taako had given him his own spell book to keep track of spells. It wasn’t much, right now - it was just one spell. But, give him some time, imagine what he could possibly do. Taako had listed other spells, and it made no sense at all, but it was still exciting.

And then Taako had cast _magic_ off the back of a galloping wagon which made Light look like a sparkler compared to an industrial firework. It was unlike anything he’d seen before. Magic. He’d never really thought about it before. He was almost ashamed to admit, he’d never given it a second thought. Everything he’d seen of magic was from the aftermath of it. The cemeteries, the monuments, the stories of those lost. He’d never seen the, the LIFE in magic before.

Even after Magnus and Taako had dispatched all of the Hell Hounds with only one getting close enough for Magnus to need to switch to his two handed ax, Kravitz had sat with his back against the wagon and just contemplated his current situation. For all his bravo and promises, he would be the first to admit that he was out of depth.

But of course he was! These were BIRDS of Story and Song! And he was a mediocre high school student with no friends. And no future.

It was a sobering thought and he remained quiet for the rest of the ride. Merle and Magnus started talking again, and even tried to draw him into the conversation, but Kravitz remained quiet and withdrawn to himself until Merle announced that they were approaching Neverwinter.

Neverwinter was nothing like what Kravitz had imagined. Well, he actually wasn’t sure what he imagined a capitol city in a world full of magic to look like – maybe like something out of the Lord of the Rings movies. Like the city of Gondor. Yes, if he was going to try to imagine Neverwinter looking like something relatable, that was it.

Neverwinter looked nothing like that. First of all, the whole city was encased in a shimmering golden bubble of light that allowed them passage as they entered, though it made Kravitz shiver a little to pass through such pure MAGIC.

“Wards against the Undead,” Merle said, giving him the side-eye. “Radiant magic. The Undead hate the stuff.” Kravitz nodded absently, his eyes training upwards as they began passing the first buildings that showed signs of damage. Tucked into various corners were soldiers, probably a mix of professional and civilian. Maybe the Undead didn’t like radiant magic, but clearly that didn’t keep them from still trying to get in.

“Magic can still past through a lot of barriers,” Taako said when he noticed Kravitz staring. “And arrows. And other projectiles. Not all undead are mindless ghouls and zombies, Karly. There’s terrifyingly smart shit out there that goes bump in the night.”

The deeper they road into the city, the fewer soldiers Kravitz saw and the more normal people that began to appear. They looked surprisingly okay for living in a world held hostage by a demon Prince. They must really have faith in their shields, and Lord Sterling’s ability to protect them.

A few people waved to their wagon as they road though the streets. Now and then there was the occasional call out to Magnus, but for the most part it was an uneventful ride up to a two storied inn with a sign out front that said ‘Finicky Francene’s’ in a lime green font. A real eyesore. In the front yard was a struggling little garden with an electric fence around it and a rude sign that warned about trying to steal. Kravitz winced. “No accounting for taste,” he and Taako said at the same time, surprising each of them.

Kravitz gave him an awkward little smile. “Great minds.”

“Sure,” Taako agreed tonelessly and turned back to the inn. “Let’s get you settled, see about getting something for lunch, and then we’ll take you to meet Angus.”

Kravitz followed him inside, trying not to stare at the odd assortment of other inn patrons, ranging wildly in size and shape from the normal looking human to what literally looked like a humanoid bird. He moved closer to Taako’s side, a little nervous as a few people looked in his direction.

“You okay?” Taako asked, close to his ear.

Kravitz nodded a little. “Just… don’t always do well in crowds like this. People tend to think I’m…” Creepy. Weird. Unsettling to be around. “Strange.” He had been appreciative when Taako had taken the hint from the clothing he’d been wearing, and left him in all black, but around so many colorful people – that woman’s skin was GREEN – he was feeling more and more awkwardly out of place.

Taako snorted and hip checked him. “You _are_ a little strange, my dude. But that’s what makes you interesting. What fun is it to be normal? To go through the same routine of life, every day, watching the same bullshit fantasy programing that everyone else is watching so that you can have something to contribute at the office around the fantasy water cooler. What makes you different, what pulls you onto a different path, your passions and idiosyncrasy, that’s what makes you unique. Don’t worry about what they,” he gestured a little loudly and received a glare from a freaking _Hobbit_ , “Think about you. Embrace who you are, and you’ll find there are other people out there who will too.”

Kravitz just stared for a long moment. And as he stared, he noticed pink creeping up Taako’s ears. That was new.

“That’s some good ‘ol Taako wisdom for you,” Taako moved back and crossed his arms across his chest, “I usually charge for that shit, but the first one’s free. You’re welcome. MAGNUS!” He grabbed Kravitz’s wrist and pulled him towards the bar. “Do you have his room yet? It’s been like a million years!”

Magnus leaned back from where he was animatedly chatting with the woman at the bar and dangled a key from his finger. “Got it Taako. I was just getting the update. The sitch. The rumor mill. The skinny.”

“Read about it in the Fantasy Times,” Taako grumbled and swiped the key from him. “Lets go.”

“You need both of us to take him to his room?” Magnus asked, and Kravitz watched something unspoken pass between them for a moment before Magnus nodded and smacked one hand into the other enthusiastically. “We definitely are both going to take you to your room! Merle! Watch my beer.”

“I’ll order lunch for everyone,” Merle offered, making himself comfortable with Magnus’s beer. Kravitz expected it wouldn’t be there when they returned.

There was a small wooden staircase near the far end of the building that wound its way up to the floor above. Kravitz was concerned for Magnus’s shoulders a couple of times, but he squeezed his way up to the second floor where a long hallway extended down the length of the building, eight doors on either side.

“Lucky number 4.” Taako unlocked the door and pushed it open. “Welcome to your home away from home until this shitshow is over.”

“Or you die,” Magnus added.

Kravitz cracked a smile and stepped inside. It was a very simple little room. There was a bed with a homemade quilt in obnoxious colors and a rather flat looking pillow, a nightstand, and a small trunk to store personal items in. And that was _it_. “There are only two bathrooms, which is the worst,” Taako was explaining as Kravitz opened the small drawer in the nightstand near the bed, “But the food is decent for what we’ve got to work with right now. And sometimes they let yours truly take a spin in there for funzies.”

“Are you a good cook?” Kravitz took a seat on the bed, testing it out. No springs and a little lumpy, but beggars can’t be choosers.

“Am I a WHAT?” Taako asked, overly righteously offended. “I am the BEST.” Kravitz laughed and Taako blushed up to his ears again.

“Sorry, my mistake,” Kravitz said, still smiling as he stood back up. “Okay, this seems…. Adequate. More than that really, this is just fine. Thank you.” If it just tried to think about it like a new foster situation too, he wouldn’t feel so concerned about the fact that he had no money and no way to lessen the responsibility he was putting on this group. “Thank you,” he said again, trying to be extra sincere. “For this, and everything else.”

“If you say thank you one more time, I’m going to change your hair pink,” Taako threatened. “You act like you’re a burden. Stop it.”

Kravitz opened his mouth to point out that even if he wasn’t a burden per say, he certainly wasn’t an asset in this situation, and but closed his mouth. Fine. Taako nodded in satisfaction. “Good boy.”

Lunch was indeed waiting for them when they made their way back down the stairs – some bread and a mostly bean chili. “Fewer and fewer calves and lambs being born,” Taako pointed out. “But there’s no point in keeping a large herd if they aren’t going to reproduce. It’s… someone else’s problem.”

“We’ll register you after we see Lucretia,” Merle added. “Your rations will come to this inn. That’s how it goes – your residence gets your rations unless you change your residence to traveling. Then you get a traveler’s bag, food for 3 days, and your card to take to the next city you make it to. If you make it.”

“If you’re a baller transmutation wizard, you can make things go a little further,” Taako added, the salt he was sprinkling over his chili changing into cheese in midair. “You should see how I’m able to stretch the stores here.”

“Yes, I can imagine,” Kravitz said, and gave Taako’s braid a playful little flip. Hair to bacon spell was still really weird, but he’d seen it work and it certainly was…. Resourceful. Creative and inventive. “You really are brilliant.” It was kind of rewarding too, to see Taako blush again, up to his ears, and resolved to complement him more. The reaction was too adorable to not.

“You’re going to make him more terrible than he already is,” Magnus warned. “He’s already bordering on impossible.”

“Shut up and let the pretty boy complement me.” Taako shoved Magnus, which did absolutely nothing and Magnus barely budged. “Taako is awesome. Everyone should take a page out of Kay’s book here and praise Taako more often!”

“Well I’m not going to sit here and listen to Taako evangelize about himself,” Merle said, climbing off the bench. “Let’s get going boys. Days-a-wastin’!”

Near the center of the town, across from the militia recruitment building and next to a post office, was the Neverwinter Library. It was a beautiful three story building with a domed glass ceiling. It was fancier than any building in the last three towns Kravitz had lived in.

The steps leading up to the tall double wooden doors were polished granite, and the columns around the building were carved in the likenesses of the gods of wisdom, knowledge, and truth. But the inside betrayed the calm and beautiful exterior. 

Just past the round desk no one was manning by the front door, Kravitz began to see the signs of long term habitation and conversion into temporary shelter. Laundry drying on a line strung between two bookshelves. There was an oven dragged in from somewhere and set up in the children’s section with a couple of colorful tables to set up a makeshift kitchen. Side reading and research rooms were converted into sleeping areas with cots and blankets and contained a few personal items, but nothing too valuable. Certainly, the inn was much more comfortable. It was amazing that there had even been an open room for Kravitz to take. Maybe the person who used to have his room had decided to risk it outside the barrier. Maybe they had just moved on. Hopefully no one had been kicked out for him.

Magnus let the way down the halls into a long reading room, the walls covered in stained class that sent rainbows of colored light around the room.

Sitting at one of the big tables with papers neatly arranged everywhere was a single young man, just about Kravitz age, maybe slightly older. As they approached his head came up, a smile ready when he saw their group, only to faulter when his eyes landed on Kravitz.

“I,” he stood up, “Wha- Kravitz?”

Kravitz frowned a little, vaguely aware of some wild movement from Merle going on at his lower left. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” He looked down and saw Merle making a threatening motion across his throat. “What is that for?”

“Oooh, nothing,” Merle said and rocked back on his heels. “Just how Angus and I say hello, right Angus?”

Angus’s eyes swept the group again and then he nodded. “Of course. Always. It’s a great goof, sir. Hi.” He came out from behind the table and extended his hand politely. “I’m Angus McDonald. And you’re Kravitz. Sirs totally sent me a message ahead and warned me you were coming. They’d never just show up without notice with potentially earth-shattering news. I was certainly expecting you.”

“Hey speak for yourself, boy-chick,” Taako said tersely, “You’re the one who sent us on that little trip, that little treasure hunt, into the Plane of Thought, with absolutely diddly about what we might find. Well this,” he gestured with both hands to Kravitz, “Is what we found, and what Orcus seems to be after. So thank YOU for that, I certainly needed and wanted that little surprise nugget falling into my lap.”

Sometimes, Kravitz would swear Taako was speaking in code. What was all that even supposed to mean?

“Fascinating.” Angus adjusted his glasses. “Well, I can tell you this was not what I was expecting.”

“We all agree that I may be a target,” Kravitz added, “But we’re not sure why. The boys said that you and Lucretia may have some insight or ideas of what to do next.”

“Mmm,” Angus agreed, and picked up a wand from the table. “Do you mind if I run a few tests? I’ve got so many questions.” Kravitz hesitated and then looked over his shoulder at Taako, who nodded.

“I know he looks like a baby, but Angus here is pretty okay sometimes. He’s also older than he looks – what with the time and life pause thing.”

“I’ve been about 18 for almost 20 years,” Angus said in a tone far too polite and nice for his statement, “It kind of sucks, sir. It sure would be nice to stop getting acne. I’m actually 38 years old. How old are you?”

Oh… “Seventeen years, seven months, twelve days.”

Angus leaned his head to the side a little. “That’s kind of specific, isn’t it?”

Kravitz shrugged. “It’s kind of a thing.” One day closer to 18 and aging out. He wouldn’t still be here when that happened, right? Would they let him do independent study to catch up with school if they thought he’d been kidnapped?

“Hey Angus, is Lucretia around?” Magnus asked. “We were hoping to speak with her too.”

“You’ll find her upstairs with the divination texts. Not you,” he snagged Kravitz’s cape when he tried to follow. “My tests, remember? It won’t take long. You can join them as soon as we finish.”

Kravitz straightened. “Right. Well,” he held his arms out. “Go ahead. Or, do you need me to do something?”

Angus shook his head. “I’m just going to start with a very simple Detect Magic. Just to see what you’ve got going on, okay?” A soft silver light pulsed from his wand and Angus leaned his head to the side a little, squinting. “Mage Armor?”

“Taako was worried,” Kravitz supplied, “He also changed my clothes.”

“Mmm that explains the residual transmutation magic.” Angus drew his wand slowly down Kravitz’s body, going back and forth like a metal detector and didn’t speak again until he hit his shoes and the light dimmed. “Well, that was wholly inconclusive and unhelpful. There’s nothing distinctly magical about you, on you, or cast on your person besides that shield.”

“Taako is trying to teach me magic,” Kravitz tried since Angus seemed a little disappointed. “Music magic. Bard. I don’t know if that shows up in your scans?”

“You can cast magic? Interesting. Can you show me?” Angus sat down in his chair and folded his hands on his knee. “Please and thank you.”

Kravitz pat down his pockets and then finally picked up a book from Angus’s table. “I only know one spell,” he apologized, and began to hum a little as he focused on the book. This time, he was able to feel it himself. Like static electricity lurking in a fluffy blanket. “Light.” Thankfully, the book began to glow and he didn’t embarrass himself infront of Taako’s other student.

“Fascinating. And do you have magic back on the Plane of Thought?” Angus asked, standing up to take the book back.

“No.” Kravitz shook his head. “Taako said I should give it a try since I’m on this plane, and this plane has magic.”

“What a load of bullshit,” Angus said cheerfully.

“Excuse me?” Kravitz asked.

Angus never got the chance to answer. From above came a great crash and glass fell around their heads. Kravitz heard the chittering a second before a bat the size of a house cat crashed into Taako’s Mage Armor, bouncing back angrily.

“Shatter!” Angus yelled, and Kravitz’s ears hurt as a painfully intense ringing blasted the bat back towards the far wall. “Get behind me!”

Kravitz’s shoes nearly slipped on the polished marble floor as he launched himself towards Angus. “It’s been following me,” he realized. “I thought it was weird, yesterday-” The bat righted itself and flew at them again with a shriek, but this time it caught on fire when it was slammed backwards. Taako stood on the stairs above them on the second floor, his eyes blazing and umbrella out.

“Make sure it’s dead,” Taako instructed Angus, sweeping down the stairs and going straight to Kravitz, checking him over carefully.

“It’s okay,” Kravitz insisted, “It missed me. Mage Armor is no joke huh?”

“How did it get in?” Magnus asked, coming up from behind, ax in his hands.

“Bats aren’t undead,” Merle said, prodding the ash with his foot. “Nothing stopping them from going through undead wards.”

“Can we ward against bats? Is that something we can do?”

“I think that’s too specific.”

“All bats aren’t bad, just the possessed ones.”

“Please,” Kravitz cut in, “Can we go back to why a bat just attacked me?”

“Bats are the totem and messenger of Orcus,” Merle said. “Most gods have totems… creatures that they can send messages through. Channel their power through. Share their eyes.” Kravitz shivered and Taako moved closer, his hand curling around his waist.

“You said, you’ve seen one before?” Angus prompted. Thank goodness someone else was focusing.

“Yesterday,” Kravitz confessed, “I thought it was weird at first. It was the early morning, and I saw a bat flying over my school. Then, one showed up during lunch, but it went away really quickly. And then,” and he’d almost forgotten, “Right before the ghouls attacked. A bat tried to attack me too. But the raven got it. I think she might have actually killed it.” He didn’t exactly stay around to find out.

“The raven?” Agnus asked.

Now everyone was looking at him. It was kind of uncomfortable. “Yes, a raven. I thought it was weird, being out so late. Ravens aren’t known for being nocturnal. But when the bat attacked, it swooped down and fought it away from me.” Okay, now that he was telling the story, and thinking about how many times he’d seen the animals, it sounded really weird to him too.

“I don’t think we need to tell you, sir,” Angus pushed his glasses back up his nose, “That the raven is the totem of the Raven Queen. No one has heard from her in over 18 years. It was assumed that Orcus destroyed her. But, if he’s hunting you, and you’ve been visited by her totem, maybe then, she’s still out there.”

“Divination is never an exact magic.” Kravitz looked up and on the top stair was an older woman with short white hair. She looked regal and just a little stern. But there were crinkles around her eyes that spoke of laughter and smiles. “When Angus and I succeeded on a particularly successful divination session a few months ago, we didn’t see you. We saw the Plane of Thought. We saw the ghouls. We saw them hunting, and felt Orcus’s anger, his search for something powerful. We saw what might be, if we did not try to get there first. The collapse of the Neverwinter wards. We thought it might be a magical object – maybe something to counter his mace, or a gift from the gods of Life.”

“Nope, just me.” Kravitz said, feeling like he needed to look up as she approached, even when he was taller than her.

“Just you,” Lucretia repeated, “Kravitz you have no idea the role you have yet to play. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“I think it’s safe to assume,” Magnus broke in, “That Orcus knows he’s here. Like, here. In Neverwinter.”

Lucretia extended her hand and Kravitz felt a warm wind wash over him. “I have hidden him from all Divination magic and scrying sensors, but Taako you will have to replace it every 8 hours to keep him shielded from Orcus’s gaze. It’s not much, but it will at least stop him from actively tracking Kravitz.”

“But, we still don’t know WHY.” Kravitz looked around at their faces, and no one looked as lost as he felt. “Why me? What am I even supposed to do?”

“If I may, Kravitz?” Lucretia said, stepping closer and holding up her hands. Upon his nod, she put her hands on his shoulders, making Taako let go of him and take a step back. “Close your eyes,” she said softly. “Envision the raven you saw. Concentrate.”

Kravitz closed his eyes lightly and felt Lucretia begin to cast something. Whatever it was, he could feel that it was powerful. “The raven, Kravitz,” she whispered, and he couldn’t remember giving her his name. “Focus on the raven. What did it look like?” He didn’t remember the raven from the light post very specifically. It had been unexpected, and it had been dark out. But, he’d gotten a good look at the raven on the windowsill of his class room. The way the cold winter sun gleamed off his wings. The strut back and forth behind the glass. The way it’s dark eyes followed him. Such dark, dark eyes. 

He felt his thoughts tunneling, focusing on and through the eyes of the raven. For a long moment, he felt like he was falling. And then, he saw, he saw a being shrouded in shadow. She was veiled and horrible, struggling, hissing and clacking her mouth like bones grinding together, her four arms chained to the wall behind her, inky black feathers scattered at her feet. The chains clanged with every move She made, and they were burning her. Her wrists were charred black. She was in pain! He could feel it. Kravitz gasped and her endless gaze swung on him, piercing behind her veil. She opened her mouth and screamed, and Kravitz jerked back, almost falling into Taako’s arms, his heart racing and stomach lurching.

“Hey, hey I’ve got you,” Taako promised. “What the fuck, Lucretia!”

“She survives,” Lucretia whispered, ignoring Taako. “She’s a prisoner. She’s really….”

“You wanna warn us before you do something like that next time?” Taako snapped. “He’s shaking!”

“I saw…” Kravitz stuttered, and his stomach heaved again. “I saw…”

“The Raven Queen, yes,” Lucretia said, going to the table and pushing some books out of the way a little too violently, causing two to fall to the floor. “I caught a ride on your vision. I’m sorry, but you’re the one with the connection. It was necessary.” She unrolled a map and began placing markers with a singular focus, her hands shaking. “She’s been gone 18 years. And the whole time, She’s been held prisoner by Orcus. All this time. We thought we needed to fight Death with Life, but it’s UnDeath that Orcus commends. And it must be usurped by the natural order of Death. The antithesis of UnDeath is not Life. Its Death.” She took a deep, shaking breath. “And you, Kravitz, are Her champion.”

“You could have warned him better about what you were doing,” Taako grumbled still.

“You will find Her,” Lucretia said, handing Magnus the map. “In the fortresses of Orcus. I wish I could provide a more accurate location, but that’s as much as I got. When you get closer, I believe Kravitz will be able to guide you. Until then, this will get you close. I have confidence you will find the Raven Queen. Whether the four of you will be able to restore her, even Istus can’t foresee.”

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Magnus promised as he put the map in his bag. “It’s too late now with the spooky things coming out in a few hours, but we’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

Lucretia nodded in agreement. “That will be the wisest choice. I wish you all the best of luck. I,” she paused for a moment. “I am going to lay down. That was wild.”

Kravitz nodded and tried to move, only to collapse further into Taako’s arms. “Merle!”

“I’m okay,” Kravitz insisted, his vision swimming. “I’m okay.”

“Shut up and let the nice Cleric check you over,” Taako scolded. “Merle?”

“Well, aside from that little vision trip, it looks like he didn’t completely avoid that Shatter spell,” Merle said, putting a very weird and kind of creepy wooden hand on his forehead. “Nice going, Angus.”

“Fuck you, sir!”

“Just get my boy back on his feet so we can get the fuck out of here and back to the inn,” Taako snapped.

“Rationing cards,” Kravitz remembered with a small slur, closing his eyes as Merle began casting a healing spell on him. “We gotta do that first.”

“I’ll handle it myself,” Taako insisted. “We’re getting you off the streets.”

Kravitz really wanted to argue, but since he felt like he was going to empty the contents of his stomach onto Merle’s loafers, he just nodded, letting Taako put his fingers through his hair. It was soothing in a kind of way he was incredibly unfamiliar with. “Just breathe,” Taako said softly, “Just breathe.”

Over his head, the boys began to plan their next move, and Kravitz focused on keeping his lunch where it belonged. But all he could think about was Her – the desperation, the anger rolling off her like a miasma. He had to free her. It was a truth he felt tied into the very core of his being. He had to free her, or die trying. 

It took a few minutes, but the nausea finally began to subside and Kravitz nodded. “I’m better, it’s okay now.”

“Good.” Taako helped him back to his feet where he stayed this time. “Magnus, Merle, take him back. I’ll be back to the inn as soon as I’ve taken care of the rations card.”

“How are you going to do that?” Kravitz asked. And Taako winked at him and moved his hand across his face, left to right, his features darkening to something oddly familiar. Like looking in a mirror.

“Maaaagic,” Taako said with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.”

“Come on Kravitz.” Magnus said. “I don’t like splitting up the party, but this is probably the fastest way to do this.”

Kravitz hesitated and looked at Taako. “You’ll be alright?”

“You won’t even know I’m gone,” Taako promised with a wink and a smirk and it was really odd to see on his own face. Kravitz nodded and began walking after Magnus, only to be stopped short and looked back. Taako looked just as surprised. When… he had he grabbed his hand? They stared for a moment, and then Kravitz quickly dropped Taako’s hand, his cheeks feeling hot.

“Um, okay. I’m going to,” he turned around and nearly ran after Magnus and Merle who thankfully didn’t laugh at him. If anything, they looked at him with something almost like pity.

“So,” Kravitz cleared his throat, desperately trying to change the atmosphere. “I’ve been wondering. UnDead, Death, Life… What’s the difference? Where should I be splitting hairs?”

“The difference between Life and Death is pretty obvious,” Merle said, “But Undead and Dead… They are a little different. The Raven Queen employed the undead in her service. But a different kind of undead than Orcus. Her emissaries, their very immortal essence is bound to her. They are thinking, feeling souls touched by divine energy. They are Undead, but only on technicality. If not for their service to the Raven Queen, one might equate their existence to angels. Now the undead of Orcus – they are bodies. Reanimated bodies using souls as fuel for driving the meat puppet. They rarely have an agency of their own, and some of them don’t even have a soul left. Creatures like ghouls, zombies, skeletons – they are just an animated body that needs to devour other life to keep it moving. Others like the Banshee Queen and other powerful undead Generals of Orcus, their souls are corrupted, tainted with his power and evil. They have limited freewill which will always be overridden by the demands of their master.”

“I’m surprised,” Kravitz admitted as they walked, “That you didn’t try yourself, Merle, to see if you would be the champion of the Life domain.” Although if Lucretia was correct, it was a good thing, otherwise he’d probably be dead.

“Merle!?” Magnus threw his head back and laughed, deep and loud.

“Why not Merle?” Kravitz felt like he was missing something critical here. “He’s a Cleric of a Life domain, and a Bird of Story and Song.”

“Kid, I think you’re overestimating how cool or powerful we really are,” Merle said, scratching his head. “We kinda suck at shit half the time, and the other half we win on what seems more like accident than skill.”

“But the documentaries and books say,” Kravitz insisted.

“Well I don’t know what you’ve heard but I know who I am.” Merle placed his hand on his chest. “And I know I’m not always the brightest, or the fastest, or even the best at remembering what spells I have or how many spell slots I’ve used. And let me tell you, embracing that? Why that’s made me happier, and improved my relationship with my kids, more than any story anyone can tell about me has ever done. I’m Merle. And fuck anyone who don’t like that. I think I’m alright.”

Inspite of himself, Kravitz found himself smiling. “I think I understand, Merle. I’ll try to put aside the things I think I know about you, and embrace you as you are.”

“But not literally right? Just checking.”

“No,” Kravitz agreed quickly. “No, I’m not going to actually hug you Merle.”

Once they made it safely back to the inn, Kravitz went up to his room and begged off any company. He just needed a few moments to himself. To process. And to apparently take a nap. He’d only intended to close his eyes for a moment.

He woke up to Taako, back in his own face, literally kicking the door in and startling him awake. “Answer me when I knock!” Taako demanded, his voice just this pitch side of frantic. “Holy fuck I thought you’d died or been kidnapped! I left you alone with those chucklefucks for ten minutes and you disappear!”

“I was just laying down for a second,” Kravitz said defensively, sitting up slowly. Taako was acting like he’d run away into the forest on his own. Magnus and Merle both knew where he was. He hadn’t even gotten under the blanket. Two times now, he’d fallen asleep in his clothing. That was just on the line of acceptable behavior. Look his shirt was all wrinkled!

Taako’s ears were going wild – Up, down, backwards, down. Kravitz didn’t understand what was driving this whirlwind of emotions in the other, but he was at least seeing that it was happening. “Taako,” he said more gently, getting up and going over. “I’m okay. I just took a short nap. Thank you for going to get my rations card. I’m sorry I worried you.”

“Who’s worried?” Taako’s ears were now high, and turning red. “I’ve been waiting a long time for the chance to kill Orcus, we need to keep you safe.”

Now honestly Kravitz really didn’t think that was the whole story, but he decided to be kind and not press the issue. There was a lot going on under the surface of Taako. “So what was that spell you did earlier?” he asked, “Because let me just say,” he gave him a good eyebrow raise, “This is ensemble,” he gestured up and down Taako, “Is so not my look.”

Taako’s mouth dropped open for a long moment, and then he grabbed the pillow from Kravitz’s bed with Mage Hand to whack him over the head with it. “This is a specially cultivated statement, you nerd!”

Kravitz leaned his head back and laughed. “It looks better on you than me, is all I’m saying.” But it seemed like the mood Taako had been in had passed. “Shall we go downstairs and join the others?”

Taako considered this for a moment, and then nodded. “That is acceptable.” Kravitz’s laughter followed him out of the room.

Downstairs a Hobbit, sorry, halfling. Halfling is what he was told they were called. Something about fantasy copyright that Kravitz didn’t understand. But it was a halfling man and red-skinned woman with horns and they were performing a violin and vocal duet. Part of their act was switching periodically during the song who was playing and who was singing. It was pretty decent, but after two songs, Kravitz was just tired. The nap hadn’t helped much at all. He quietly ate what was put infront of him by the innkeeper, his brain trying to focus between the conversations around him and the music.

Finally, Kravitz excused himself from the table first, blaming Angus’s spell because that made Merle start ranting about ‘that pipsqueak’ and everyone was too distracted to focus on his exit. Well, mostly everyone. Taako was following him. “I… do you need something?” Kravitz asked, pausing on the stairs, almost to the top.

Taako honestly looked annoyed. “Yeah, I need you to not die or get kidnapped in the middle of the night. Taako is going to camp out on your floor tonight to make sure nothing happens to you. I’d make Magnus or Merle do it but elves don’t need sleep like the rest of you, and that Non Detection spell needs to be recast in a few hours.”

Kravitz sighed. Well, that sounded about right. “Sure. Come in.” He held the door for Taako politely and then noticed that the elf was carrying something. “For me?”

“No, for myself. I obviously need to wear two sets of pajamas. Of course for you. You want to sleep in your clothes again?” Taako turned around to face the door. “Go ahead and change.”

Okay, maybe that was a little bit of a silly question but Taako seemed a little over agitated even for him. He fidgeted in place while Kravitz changed quickly, folding his clothing carefully and putting them on top of the dresser before he pulled on the deep maroon night shirt. It was soft like flannel and if he had to wear color, this wasn’t too bad.

“That was a mighty hefty sigh, my dude,” Taako called, his ears moving even if he still had his back to him. “You decent?”

“Yeah, I’m dressed.” Kravitz sat down on his bed and pulled his legs up. “It’s just… A lot has happened in 24 hours.”

“I know, believe me, I know.” Taako come over and threw a purple pillow with gold stars and gold tassels onto the floor. “Honestly the last two decades can fuck right off and we’d be good.”

Right. Taako lost his sister and her husband – two of the Birds. More, he’d lost two important members of his family. People he’d loved, and fought beside, and lost, and found, for over 100 years. “I’m sorry,” Kravitz said softly. “I can’t imagine my being here is really helping right now, but I’m trying Taako.”

“Stop apologizing, I can’t.” Taako swiped Kravitz’s spell book off his side table. “Here, let’s distract both of us. I’ll write some spells in here for you and tell you what they do. Here’s a good one, an ‘ol Taako classic. Charm Person.”

Kravitz rolled over onto his stomach and watch Taako write in his book, the ink in the pen he used suddenly purple where he was PRETTY sure it was black a few moments ago.

“Taako?” he said softly, and the only real reason he knew Taako had heard him was the way his ear swiveled in his direction. “What if I can’t do it? Free Her, I mean. I don’t know why it’s me, and honestly, I wish it wasn’t. Lucretia implied that I’m a key to saving this whole plane. I’ve never been extraordinary, my whole life. How am I supposed to save everyone, when I can’t even protect myself? Why Her? Why me? I just-”

Taako snapped the book shut and tossed the pen. “That’s not sleeping, my dude. That’s one big long existential crisis that we are not prepared to deal with right now. It’s a big yikes and it’s a going to probably get worse before it gets better, but if nothing else, you’re not alone.” Yeah, that didn’t make Kravitz feel a whole lot better and it probably showed on his face. Taako smacked himself in the forehead. “Fuck. Okay. You know what? Budge over. Make room for Taako.” Taako climbed up onto the bed and pushed Kravitz over. “Close your eyes and try to sleep. I’m right here if something happens.”

Kravitz closed his eyes and took a deep breath. But it was hard. Sleep felt elusive, even with the warmth of Taako beside him. “Sleep,” Taako said softly, his hand landing on the side of his head, his fingers threading through his hair. “Sleep, Kason. It’s okay.”

“That’s not my name,” Kravitz mumbled. Taako laughed a little, breathy and soft.

“I know.” But he didn’t correct himself. Taako was silent for a long moment and then began to hum softly. He didn’t have the best voice, a little off key and a slightly pitchy, but it was still one of the sweetest things he’d ever heard. He couldn’t… remember the last time he’d had someone sit close with him and sing to him while he fell asleep. 

And yet.

Deep in his soul.

It felt familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our plot thickens and becomes more complicated! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Drop me a comment if you like, I always love to hear everyone's thoughts!


	5. Time

Taako was willing to admit it. It was a bad idea to sit on Kravitz’s bed and let him fall asleep against his side, his forehead against Taako’s hip. He’d spent far too much time staring at him in the dark, taking note of the differences between his memory and the boy beside him.

The shorter length of his hair and the way it curled cutely around his little human ears. The youthful softness in his face. He fucking did it to himself, this heartbreak.

Some people said, elves were cold and uncaring. And maybe they weren’t wrong, but man, they had to be! They easily outlived most of the people they met over the course of their lives. 

Once, when he was still a child, a half elf he knew that was not yet even sixty lost their human parent. He and Lup, barely bigger than the other kid was, had hovered awkwardly, patting his shoulder while he cried over the loss. Taako had tried to point out in solidarity that they didn’t have parents either, but he was told very rudely that it was different. His mother had LOVED him. She just got old. And, after holding Lup back from socking the kid in the nose, Taako had sworn that he’d never get attached to a human. As he’d aged, the decision only solidified firmer. Taako refused to care about anyone he’d lose before his shoes were even out of style!

And yeah, while he broke his own rules on occasion – Kravitz had been perfect. 

Literally and functionally immortal, he’d thought that he’d be safe if he gave him his heart. For once, he’d found someone who would out-exist himself. There was someone else who looked at one hundred years with a shrug. For whom time was an abstract concept that seemed to stretch on in the distance with an unknown end. Like a fool, he’d gambled on forever.

Instead, Taako had held him in his arms while he was unmade.

And now this boy appeared, who he knew better than to get attached to just because he struck so many chords of memory that Taako had thought he’d carved out of his heart for his own protection. It was stupid to even think he should be remotely responsible for his health and safety and happiness. It was! He should be like a house plant! A stray cat at the very best. They didn’t know each other. They had no shared history, no memories together. He was a specter of nostalgia wrapped in pretty packaging and a fragile mortal shell.

Fuck that was horrible too – he was human. Even if they all survived this, somehow and unlikely as that was, Kravitz was human. Even IF the soul remembered what the mind did not, there was no future, no chance for them. Just a delay before Taako got to lose him again. This time to old age, maybe, if they were lucky. He didn’t know if he could survive that kind of loss again. It had taken a solid decade to get used to ‘my husband was’ over ‘my husband is’. The tense change still bothered him, and so more often than not he just didn’t talk about him or that period of his life. Which then made him feel shitty too.

Feel like he was pretending Kravitz had never existed. That, as short as their time had been, it had been but a blip in the Taako Timeline. It made him sick, it made him want to throw something and he could truly sympathize with his sister’s fire rages. The short duration shouldn’t be the defining characteristic of his marriage! It was _real_. They’d been _real_. And it had been TAKEN from him.

So he should really separate himself from this boy before he got too attached. Let Magnus take care of him. Magnus was great with strays. It was what was best for both of them.

And yet.

He’d sooner cut off his own hand than make this dark and sad creature feel any more alone on this strange plane than he already did. He knew loneliness when he saw it. And how dare the Plane of Thought mistreat such a beautiful young man just because he was different! It wasn’t Kravtiz’s fault that his soul didn’t fit there – like a grape in a bowl of peas. He was still a person!

So was he just fucked?

Kravitz moved a little in his sleep, his hands flexing and Taako put his fingers gently through his hair, watching him still and sigh softly.

Yup. Royally fucked.

~

_He falls to the ground, pain blossoming out from his side like a sunburst. It hurts. Down to the very core of his soul, it hurts. Its how he imagines poison would feel, spreading through his body, burning like fire._

__

__

_There’s screaming. Frantic. Words he can’t quite make out through the fog of his mind, but the voice, the voice is familiar and important enough to make him try and struggle against the darkness. Pressure on his chest, tears falling onto his cheeks. “Don’t move. Just, just stay still. We’ll fix this.” A hysterical shriek and hands curl into his clothing. “Fix this!”_

__

__

_Sound swirls, muddled, like waves crashing over his ability to make out what’s being said. He thinks that hand is still on his chest, but he can’t feel it anymore. He wants to open his eyes – just see him once more. He can’t, but his hand twitches, and it’s grabbed tight._

__

__

_He feels the build up of radiant energy above him. Wants to warn them, no, no don’t do that! But he has no breath to speak._

__

__

_“I cast – ”_

Kravitz woke with a start, a shout on his lips, his hands reaching for… for…

“Hey, hey – fuck, Dancing Lights!” Warm purple lights suddenly hung in the air around Kravitz’s bed as he tried to catch his breath. “It’s okay.” There was… Taako, holding his hands. “You’re okay. It was just a bad dream.”

“Yes,” Kravitz agreed, closing his eyes and sitting up, pushing himself back to the headboard with both hands. “Yes, it was. It’s the same one, all the time.” Except this time, it was different. More clear and detailed that he’d ever experienced before. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it.”

“Who’s worried?” Taako _clearly_ lied. He fidgeted for a moment, looking from the ceiling to his hands and then back. “Sooo you want to talk about it?

Kravitz shook his head.

“You want to go back to sleep?”

Kravitz definitely shook his head harder this time and Taako leaned his head back against the headboard. “Well if you’re not going to go back to sleep, you get to stay up with me. It’s not quite dawn yet, and we aren’t going anywhere until we’ve got some solid day light.”

“I can live with that,” Kravitz agreed, opening his eyes and giving Taako a weak quirk of the lips. Taako’s hair had been taken out of it’s braid at some point during the night and hung long and loose around his face. The purple lights bobbled in the air, soft and calming. “These are pretty.” Kravitz reached up and poked at one of the lights over his head. “Can I do this?”

“Yeah,” Taako said, slowly relaxing. “You can do this one. You want to give it a try?”

It certainly sounded better than thinking about his dream. After all this time – why did it change now? No, don’t think about it. “How do I do it?”

“Dancing Lights? How do you think you do it?” Taako challenged with a high grin.

Kravitz made a face and looked around, but nothing really presented itself as a vocal alternative. “Da dah dat da da, Dancing Lights!” He half joked, throwing his hand up in the air as he finished his little ditty. And to his delight and surprise, four blue glowing lights appeared amid the purple ones from Taako. “Taako!”

“There you go,” Taako laughed. “You’re a natural bobula!”

“Why are they different colors?” Kravitz asked, poking one of the blues ones and sending it bumping gently into one of the purple.

“Oooh magic theory. They are what color you want them to be. If you don’t select it, your magical energies will select for you.” Taako reached up and poked one of the purple, changing it to green, and then again to pink. “Try it.”

Kravitz reached up and poked one. Blue to purple, like Taako’s. And then yellow. He smiled and reached up with both hands and began changing the colors at will. It was fun. The different colors reminded him of a children’s light up keyboard he’d seen once as a child in a store. He pushed the orbs into a line and began humming, tapping the orbs like the keys in an octave on a piano. And after a moment, Taako’s hands came up, and he began playing – and humming – a cadence on the lights. 

The song came to a gentle end and Kravitz sat still for a moment, letting the sound just linger in the air. “You’re good,” Kravitz said, delighted. “Where did you learn to play?”

Taako’s hands dropped from the air abruptly and his lights vanished. “I… my husband taught me.”

“Oh I,” Kravitz felt vaguely embarrassed. “Didn’t know you were married.”

“I was,” Taako said quietly, his ears back and low. “He’s… gone. Awhile ago.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kravitz said. He shouldn’t have asked. The moment from earlier was broken leaving sharp edges everywhere and Taako wasn’t looking at him anymore. “I don’t have anyone,” he confessed suddenly. “Never had, for as long as I can remember.” Taako’s head slowly came up, his ears twitching. “No parents ever claimed me. No foster family ever kept me. I’ve been bounced from place to place, and home to home. I belong nowhere, and to no one.”

“That’s like Lup and me,” Taako said, “My sister. I mean, we had our Aunt, for a little while, but when she died, we were alone. It was just her and me, against the world. Pulling cons on adults that thought kids couldn’t possibly be trying to get one over on them. Cooking for traveling caravans for our keep and teaching each other magic. It was hard, but, we were together.” He gave Kravitz a side glance and continued talking. “She would have liked you. Probably would have laughed her ass off first, but she probably would have tried to steal you as her apprentice. She was always the brave one of us. She took chances, made mistakes, and kept pressing on.”

And I miss her so much was left lingering in the air. Kravitz had never had a sibling – never had anyone in his life that he could say he’d die for. It must be really nice.

“I promise you, Taako.” Kravitz found his hand among the gaudy blankets and gave it a squeeze. “We will find out what happened to Lup. We will put this world back into the natural order of things.”

After a moment, Taako squeezed back, raising Kravitz’s hand halfway to his lips. “We will, Kevin. We will.”

Kravitz smiled and shook his head. “Nope, still not my name.”

“Maybe if you wouldn’t smile like that when I get it wrong you wouldn’t give me incentive to keep fucking it up,” Taako shot back with a small grin, and propelled himself up off the bed, casting a quick spell on Kravitz’s clothes. “Faster than a washing machine. You should be good to go. Get dressed and meet me downstairs.”

~

Taako kept smiling until the door closed and he leaned back against the wall. What was he JUST telling himself!? This was all so many levels of bad. He dragged himself down the stairs dramatically - because he could - and saw Magnus already sitting at one of the tables. The rest of the tables were otherwise empty since most intelligent people were still asleep.

“Good morning, Taako,” Magnus greeted, still on this side of quiet with the early morning. “Should I ask where you were?” The inn was full, it was ALWAYS full, but they’d been coming BACK theoretically from the Plane of Thought, and so had negotiated their rooms to be held for a certain amount of time. Sometimes being an interplanar hero had it’s perks. But Taako had given up his own room to Kravitz and was supposed to be sharing with Magnus, since he’d sooner sleep on this table than share a room with Merle again. Been there, done that, and SO over that.

“You know damn well where I was,” Taako grumbled, sliding into the seat across from him and putting his forehead on the table. He was silent for a long time, letting Magnus get him a cup of mediocre coffee.

“Taako,” Magnus began slowly as he set the white mug down in front of him, “We got a visit from Lucretia last night after you left.”

“Oh yay, Lucretia,” Taako grumbled, not lifting his head. If anything he ground it harder against the wood. “What did she want?”

“Well, she figured, if Kravitz was going to pop back on our radar after all this time, maybe Lup would too.” Taako’s head shot up so fast he was pretty sure he tweaked something in his neck. 

His sister. His hands spread wide and flat on the table, clammy, his heart racing. Lup. “She found her?”

Magnus winced – a full body wince, which was really kind of impressive. “Not… exactly. Divination is-”

“Not an exact magic, blah blah I get it, what did she see?”

Magnus unfolded a small piece of paper and Taako snatched it up. It was Lup’s handwriting, but…. But not? It was like her worst chicken scratch after a long night of drinking and dancing, but hard, like she was digging the pencil in with every letter. “Lucretia tried to channel her. This is what she got.”

**Send Help.**

Taako almost dropped the paper to the table. “She’s alive. She’s in trouble!” He turned the paper over to check the other side. Blank. Except for where the pencil had broken through. “This was ALL she got?”

“Divination is-”

“UUUGH!” Taako smacked his head back down on the table. But she was okay! Maybe not okay, but she was alive! Maybe not alive? If she’d litched again, he could work with that! She wasn’t _gone_. And if he didn’t have THIS mission on his hands right now, he’d go and wake Lucretia up and demand another session of this not-exact-magic divination crap. “This is the exact opposite of helpful right now, Magnus.”

“I know,” Magnus reached over and pat Taako on the shoulder. “And I’m assuming you did something dumb since you’re down here alone.”

Taako gave him a baleful glare. “What do you take me for? He’s a kid. I didn’t DO anything.”

Magnus nodded. “Fair, fair. What did you SAY?”

“Stupid, sentimental shit.” Taako rubbed his temples with his fingers. His sister. Kravitz. Pretty much a suicide mission to save the Raven Queen. “It’s too early to have a headache.”

“Do you not feel well?”

Taako yelped and flailed, falling backwards off the bench. He narrowly avoided hitting his head on the bench behind him, his hat tumbling off as he looked up at Kravitz. Kravitz had the nerve to look slightly amused AND concerned at the same time. “Need to put a bell on you,” Taako grumbled, accepting a hand up. “Are we just missing Merle?”

“Yes. Are you not feeling well?” Kravitz repeated, not about to be deterred.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Taako readjusted his hat on his head. “But I don’t want to talk about it so don’t fucking ask.”

“Fair enough,” Kravitz allowed mellowly and took a seat next to Taako, casually _stealing_ a sip of his coffee. “Should someone wake Merle?”

“Let him sleep a little longer,” Magnus said, watching them, and Taako felt his ears start to burn. This wasn’t his fault! “We’re going to need him today with a lot of radiant magic and the wards tonight. No one make him do anything that will unnecessarily burn a spell slot. Actually, no one cast anything unnecessary as a general rule.”

Kravitz turned and raised an eyebrow at Taako. “It was a cantrip!” Taako defended himself. “Two cantrips. They don’t count. You’re just a baby magic user, you don’t get to tell me to count my spell slots! YOU count your spell slots.” He fidgeted and the scowled. “I’m going to go grab our breakfast so we can GO.”

“I need to get the horses ready,” Magnus agreed. And good! He knew what good for him. If he pushed too much harder, Taako was _going_ to magic missile him, spell slots be damned!

“I’ll go with you, Magnus,” Kravitz offered, setting Taako’s hat back on his head. “I’m pretty sure you have breakfast handled.”

Yeah, a little more time to breathe and not be surrounded by ugh, feelings, would probably be good. “You go, yes. Hell right, I don’t need any help around the kitchen.” He just needed a few minutes, and he’d be _fine_.

~

Outside the inn was cold and a thin top layer of icy snow crunched underfoot as Kravitz followed Magnus out to the barn with the horses. Miranda and Buttercup seemed happy to see them, putting their heads over the stall doors as they came in.

“I used to raise and train dogs,” Magnus said, greeting both horses in turn. “Maybe, if this is over someday, I’d like to go back to doing that. It’s hard not to think that maybe, this is really the turning point. We’re either going to do this thing, or it’s over.” Kravitz nodded in understanding, the unspoken weight of this mission – this was it. The final push.

“This plane is already stretched to it’s limit,” Kravitz agreed, reaching his hand towards Buttercup, but she shied away from him nervously. Like most animals did. Sigh. He tried not to take it personally. There were a few other horses in the stable and Kravitz wondered macabrely how long it would be before people resorted to eating their horses. “You can feel it. Unlife and undeath can’t keep existing like this. Harmony and balance either must be restored, or it will all fall into chaos.” Maybe not the result Orcus initially wanted, but somehow Kravitz couldn’t imagine that he’d be especially disappointed with the result.

“Do you think we can win?” Kravitz asked very quietly. “I don’t think Taako would give me a fair answer. And I don’t know Merle knows or has even stopped to really think about it. But you’re Magnus Burnsides the Fighter. You must have some feeling about this.”

After a long moment Magnus finally nodded. “If we can find the Raven Queen,” Magnus began slowly, “We might have a chance. But the road there is very dangerous. We’re going to try to hop from town, but eventually we’ll move beyond where there are any warded towns. And we’ll have to be constantly on our guard. We’re not GREAT at stealth, so chances are, they’ll know where to find us. We’ve never tried to outrun them like this before.”

He paused and then straightened, his hands on his hips. “We’ll be fine, Kravitz! We’ve faced worse before! We’ll just destroy any undead we find. Easy peasy!”

“You are the worst liar I’ve ever met,” Kravtiz said, still managing a small laugh though. He liked Magnus’s optimism, even if it seemed misplaced.

Magnus grinned with lots of teeth. “Nah, you’ve met Taako. Anyway, Kravitz. This isn’t going to be fun… maybe a little fun, but we’re all looking out for each other. We got this.”

Kravitz let Magnus go back to tackling the horses, but that stuck with him. The worst liar he knew, in Magnus’s opinion was, Taako? That didn’t seem like a fair assessment.

“You’re really a good friend, Magnus,” Kravitz said a little wistfully. Looking out for Taako and Merle like he did. Even when he gave them shit. It was one of those close, unbelievable friendships he only ever saw from the outside. “I’m really kind of jealous.”

“Look, Kravitz-” And Kravitz remembered in a moment – that this man wasn’t just Magnus, the Fighter. He was Magnus, the Adventurer. Magnus, the Friend. Magnus, the Neighbor, Colleague, and Husband. He was battle scars and laugh lines. Calluses and crows feet. This was a man who had _lived_. “You’re young. You have time, okay? Being a teenager upright sucks sometimes. Your control over yourself, your person, even your appearance sometimes - its dictated by others around you who say they have a better idea of what’s right for you than you. It’s bullshit, okay? You’re going to get past it. And then you get to decide who you are, and who you’ll be.”

“If we survive this,” Kravitz added with a little smile, which made Magnus grin like the lovable buffoon he was.

“If we survive this!” he cheered.

Kravitz left Magnus to the horses, since the longer he stayed the more nervous even the others still stabled seemed to get, and wandered outside. The weak sun was just starting to come up over the roofs, but didn’t quite reach into the cold shadows cast by the barn. “Time,” he repeated softly. He’d always been counting down – feeling like he was running out of time. What would it feel like, to have all the time in the world?

There was a flutter of sound and Kravitz looked to the top of the barn. There, gripping the gutter, was a large, deeply black raven. It leveled a calm, even gaze at him, and Kravitz felt a pulse of magic from it that seemed to reach straight into his heart and made him shiver all the way to his toes. He could feel Her in the bird’s graze, watching him.

“Kristoph?”

Kravitz looked up sharply. When did Taako come outside? He looked back at the barn roof, but the raven was gone.

“You okay?” Taako asked cautiously, stepping closer and his hand tightening on his umbrella.

“Yes,” Kravitz murmured. “Yes, I’m fine. I just… thought I saw something.” Through the eyes of the raven, She waited. Her anticipation was almost palatable, coating his thoughts and sticking in the back of his throat so thick he was almost choking on it. He shivered again and then there was Taako, wrapping his red scarf around his neck.

“All meat boys need to remember that they’re susceptible to shit like cold,” Taako scolded in a tone that totally contradicted the sad affection in his eyes. “Come inside and get some joe to go, and then if Merle hasn’t come down yet we’ll go drag him out of bed by his ankles.” He paused. “YOU can go drag him out of bed by his ankles. Taako has seen too much of that dwarf in his life by accidents like that, thank you.”

Kravitz surprised himself by leaning his head to the side and laughing delightedly, distantly noting the way Taako’s ears perked up, pleased with himself. “So you’re going to sacrifice my poor eyes instead?” Kravitz asked with a pout. “Taako, I thought we were friends.” The word slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it and for one horrified moment he couldn’t breathe.

But Taako didn’t even seen to notice. He just wrapped his hands around Kravitz’s arm and led him back towards the inn. “Homie, I’d send my own sister in there just to save myself the mental scaring. You don’t get a pass.”

Luckily, neither of them ended up having to go wake Merle up. He was coming down the stairs clomping and stomping with all the grace of an elephant as they reentered the building. There was certainly a lot of noise and energy in someone so small.

“You’re awake,” Kravitz greeted him. “We were about to go wake you.”

“Nah, no need, I’ve been awake,” Merle explained. He stretched his arms up over his head and leaned from side to side. “Sunrise yoga in the nude. Best way to start a day.”

Kravitz turned and gave Taako the most accusatory look, which just sent him into little huffing giggles. “I promise I only thought it was a minor possibility!”

Magnus came inside, bringing the cold with him. “We’re ready to go outside,” he let them know. “But before we go, lets set some ground rules.”

“Safe word is Banana,” Merle said in his _outdoor_ voice and earned himself a disapproving look from the innkeeper

“Eww, no, gross. According the Lucretia’s map, we’re heading south. Now there are some scattered towns around, but the closest one to here is Deepwater. We’re not going to be able to reach it by dusk. That means we’re camping tonight. It’s not the best option, but that’s why we have Merle.”

“Ha ha!” Merle flexed his arm with the plant limb. Kravitz had asked him about it on the way to Neverwinter and had gotten the most peculiar response. From the way that Taako had started throwing books at Merle too, maybe it wasn’t a story he particularly WANTED to hear.

“Chances are,” Magnus continued, “We’re going to run into something bad out there.”

“It’s said,” Merle added for Kravitz’s benefit, “That Orcus created four great Generals to command his armies. The Banshee Queen in the North.”

“The Wraith here in the West.”

“The Gnoll in the South.

“And the Wright out in the East.”

“Not to mention the usual shadows, ghosts, and vampires. And fiends like the Hell Hounds which aren’t technically undead.”

That… sounded like an awful lot of enemies for just the four of them. Kravitz recalled again Magnus’s too big smile and wondered once more in this was even possible. “And the worst one is the Banshee Queen?” Kravitz confirmed.

“She’s _CLEVER_ ,” Taako said with some disgust. “She convinced a group of Rockport necromancers to help her bring down their city’s ward so that she and her ghouls could get in.”

… What? _Really_? “Necromancers?” Kravitz asked, his voice dripping with distain. “Honestly? With everything that has been going on?”

Merle shrugged, clearly not sharing his sentiment. Which, come on the guy was a Cleric! If anyone should be agreeing with him it was Merle! “You’d be surprised how many people think, if Orcus is to win, it is better to be on his side, stay alive, and do his bidding than risk resisting and become one of the many creatures that mindlessly are in his control.”

“Your face is going to freeze that way,” Taako warned Kravitz and poked his cheek with his finger. “Remember, it’s been a very long time. Some people, they don’t have the fight in them.”

“You all fought for over one hundred years!” Kravitz pointed out indigently. “How dare they give up and betray their own?!”

“There is nothing more scary than a desperate person, Karmello,” Taako said seriously, “There is nothing they won’t do. Remember that.”

A desperate person, or someone with nothing to lose, Kravitz reminded himself, watching Taako go back over to the bar and pack out four coffees for them to take with. But… that wasn’t it, right? Kravitz got into the wagon and settled into the back left corner with his coffee – made perfectly even though Taako hadn’t asked him how he took it. He smiled a little as Taako made himself comfortable next to him and pulled out his own spellbook. Sitting next to him, right next to him, their shoulders brushing then they moved or Kravitz leaned over to point to something on the page - instead of as far away as possible like before.

Someone with nothing to lose was dangerous. 

But, so was someone with something to protect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! Almost to the halfway mark! Chapters 7 and 8 are being really difficult for some reason. But I'm still planning on making next Wednesday.
> 
> Let me know how you liked it! Reviews give me heart. Always around to chat at https://www.instagram.com/minervanyx/?hl=en


	6. Echos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the boys thought dodging bats was going to be the worst they saw from Orcus, they were dead wrong. It was only a matter of time before they ran into one of the Generals.  
> Warning: Fantasy violence, wounds, and a fight in this chapter. Nothing TOO gory but I want to at least put that out there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The boys often forgot about some of the neat stuff they had! Do you remember that Taako at 6th level could create a transmuter's stone that stores transmutation magic, which can be given to someone else and allow them to have things like, IDK, Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet!?
> 
> Warning: Fantasy violence, wounds, and a fight in this chapter. Nothing TOO gory but I want to at least put that out there.

Kravitz shivered as the darkness crept in closer as the sun began to set. He knew, as the others did, that the undead things out in the woods would be coming out as the sun left the sky. They hadn’t seen anything, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t out there. Even Magnus and Merle kept their chatter down to a dull murmur. “It’s now or never,” Magnus finally decided and the next small clearing they found, Magnus pulled the wagon to a stop and jumped out. “We’ll camp here.”

Everyone piled out of the wagon, stretching out the kinks from sitting for so long. Magnus had barely let them stop even for bathroom breaks. Which, while Kravitz had appreciated the caution he was taking -since that seemed like it was a rare thing - it was really not the most comfortable way to travel. He certainly didn’t need to know that Merle was self-proclaimed proficient at peeing off a moving wagon, thank you.

Said dwarf kind of just tumbled off of the wagon and then popped back up like a daisy and dusted the earth from his hands and clothes. “Alright boys,” Merle rubbed his hands together almost gleefully, “Step aside. It’s Merle’s time to shine.” He raised his Extreme Teen Bible in the air and began chanting. Kravitz took a quick step back away from him and almost collided with Taako who hefted a heavy burlap sack into his arms.

“He’s going to set the undead ward,” Taako explained as he led Kravitz to what looked like the ashes of an old campfire. “It’s tied to him, and his lifeforce. It makes it stronger than undead wards that you just drop and go. Those can be weakened by repeated bombardment. This kind though is the real deal.”

Kravitz helped Taako start to build a fire, feeding the small flame with dry sticks until Merle announced, “We’re good!” and rejoined them. He leaned back against the fallen tree Taako had selected as his prepping area and tucked his arms up over his head. “And that’s how we do, boys. That’s how we do.”

Taako began pulling things out of the bag he made Kravitz carry - a couple of knives, four bowls and utensils to match, an unmarked assortment of clay spice jars, and a large cooking pot. “Dinner in about half an hour, and sunset in about the same,” he warned. “Consider this curfew.” 

As Taako began working on their dinner, Magnus walked the perimeter of their camp site, starting to squint as it got darker and the shadows cast by the trees began to lengthen. “You know this would be a LOT easier with dark vision?” he complained.

Taako pulled a gem from his pocket and chucked it at his head. “Here! Fine! I wasn’t using it anyway.”

“Thanks Taako!” Magnus grinned as he caught it out of the air. “Oooh, I can see everything now.”

“Do you really think we’ll be attacked tonight?” Kravitz asked, helping peel the carrots Taako had acquired through some means that he’d told him not to worry about.

“High chance,” Merle said grimly from where he was still lounging. “That bat from yesterday knew where you were. So, even if they can’t track you now, they know your last location. Orcus had all last night to send his legions towards Neverwinter and all the roads around it. Tonight, they’ll all be back on the search, seeing if they can find us. Chances are, at least one group will. But don’t worry, these wards are good and will hold. They’ll leave once dawn approaches.”

“Who’s worried?” Kravitz lied, his eyebrows drawn and his jaw clenched. “And should we be saying that name out-loud?”

“He’s not Fantasy Voldemort,” Taako said with a shrug. “Can’t say it’s really made a difference in the past eighteen years if we say it or not.

“I suppose,” Kravitz allowed. “I guess I just don’t like it.”

“Wonder why,” Merle mumbled, and then yelped. “Dang it Taako stop hitting me!” Kravitz could only assume that friends were just weird and if he ever learned how to people better, he’d understand. “You’ve got first watch, right?”

“He most certainly does not,” Kravitz objected, pointing his paring knife at Taako because the elf wouldn’t let him use a peeler like a normal person. The type of blade really didn’t make the food taste any different, he was sure of it! “Taako didn’t sleep last night. And he was on first watch my first night here, but was awake when I got up.”

“Oh REALLY Taako?” Merle turned around and gave Taako the weirdest version of what Kravitz could only assume was supposed to be a lecherous leer. He really just looked like he had some kind of bug up his nose. “You have something you wanna tell the rest of the class, Taako?”

“I will murder your ass,” Taako threatened, “I will bury you like the plant you are. And then one day, when you’re a tree, I will have Magnus cut you down and turn you into a footstool, just so I can put my foot through your face one more time.”

“I’d do it, Merle,” Magnus warned with a grin, “But only so that you didn’t go to waste. Maybe I can save enough wood to make a whistle.”

“Oh you two both get bent!”

“I’ll take first shift,” Kravitz cut back in before they could escalate again. “I’m part of this party, I can pull some weight here. I’ll go first.” 

“Second! I call second!” Merle yelled. Probably to get away from third. Who wanted to wake up from a dead ass sleep in the most middle of the night?

“I’ve got third,” Magnus sighed, “It’s only fair.”

“I don’t need that much sleep,” Taako protested, “I’ll probably be up before third is done anyway.”

“But you LIKE sleep, Taako,” Magnus pointed out. “Go ahead and take fourth it’s fine.”

“Besides,” Merle chuckled, “When we’re inevitably attacked tonight, everyone will be up and then all of this planning won’t matter!”

Taako paused and seemed to contemplate that before finally giving him a decisive nod. “You’ve got a good point, my dude. Okay, fuck it! Taako’s got fourth shift.” He turned back to his carrots and jabbed Kravitz with his knife. “No more tattling on me.”

“No promises,” Kravitz laughed, edging away from the blade.

With some creativity, Taako put together a simple curry and ladled everyone out a full bowl. Taako sat beside Kravitz, their knees almost brushing, and Magnus and Merle sat on the log across from them. They ate quietly for a moment, listening to the woods settle into night around them, the crackle of the fire, and the scrape of utensils loud in the otherwise silence of the campsite. “Kravitz,” Magnus said slowly, almost making him jump at the sudden sound of his voice, “Did you know, that when I re-met these guys, Merle was wondering around, asking people if they had teens? No context up front, just if they had teens.” 

Kravitz looked over at Merle and cracked a smile, shaking his head. “Well that’s not creepy at all now, is it.”

Mischief and firelight danced in Magnus’s eyes. “And this one,” he gestured to Taako, “He was the worst! He changed a table into cola that first night. Because, what was your schtick, Taako? You know, the one. Do it for us?”

“No way!” Taako refused, pulling his legs closer to his body and clutching his dinner.

“Aww come on, Taako,” Merle wheedled, “For old time’s sake. It was a good bit.”

“Do it, Taako!” Magnus cheered, “Come on, do it! Do it!”

“Fine! Fine fine.” Taako sat up straighter and put his bowl aside to adjust his hat and his clothing. He took a deep breath, and then leaned back, extending one leg in front of him off the ground. “Why me?” he asked, pressing his fingertips to his chest and yup, he was batting his eyelashes and everything, “How would I know that? I’m just an Idiot Wizard. How was I supposed to know that fire burns up? Wood flammable? Could have warned me about that, homie. Next thing, you’re going to tell me that people are flammable too. Well we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

Kravitz blinked a few times and then threw his head back and laughed. He didn’t know what he expected but it certainly wasn’t _that_. That was just so _stupid_. A beat later, the other guys joined in – Magnus’s great big bear laugh, Merle’s loud and unrestrained HA HA HA, and Taako’s higher pitched laughter. “And this worked?” Kravitz asked, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Hey it was a tired and true method!” Taako chortled, his arm wrapped around his stomach, “ _Some_ people even found it charming!”

“Charming!” Kravitz laughed harder. “I can’t even begin to imagine!”

“Don’t be mad Taako,” Merle put a GIANT bite of his curry into his mouth, “Kravitz just can’t appreciate it because he’s a good kid. A good bit is wasted on him.”

“Oh come on,” Kravitz grinned, “I’m not always and only on my best behavior.”

“Oh yeah,” Magnus challenged, “What’s your claim to fame then?”

Kravitz gave it a good, hard thought. Okay, maybe he was pretty well behaved, but he had to be! It just made things easier. But he wasn’t TOTALLY boring. “Okay, so when I was 15,” Kravitz admitted, “I started a new school halfway through the year. I didn’t know anyone, and no one knew me, and it’s always awkward enough to be introduced as a new kid so I…” Wow he was actually kind of embarrassed to admit it, but they were all leaning forward excitedly. “I kind of pretended to be foreign,” he admitted sheepishly, “And talked with a British accent for five weeks solid before I dropped it, suddenly, in the middle of a presentation. Just to see what the class would do.”

For a moment, Magnus, Taako, and Merle were all silent, and Kravitz began really regretting his decision to confess this. He was a kid! Kids were weird! He couldn’t explain why he did it. He was just bored and it made starting a new school more interesting.

Then Taako snorted and they all broke out into laughter. Taako was practically howling, his head back and his hat falling off onto the ground. Kravitz shrugged sheepishly. “It’s not THAT funny, guys. It was actually pretty lame.”

“You’re right,” Taako still laughed and pushed his hair back out of his eyes. “And that’s why it’s so damn _funny_!”

Kravitz – he didn’t know what came over him – he reached out and shoved Taako. But the elf flailed wildly and grabbed onto him, sending them both falling to the ground.

“You’re so dumb!” Taako kept laughing as he shoved Kravitz as they tussled on the ground. “That’s so ridiculous! I can’t believe you just admitted that!”

“You’re so dumb!” Kravitz shot back, rolling over to try and flatten Taako. “See if I ever admit anything again!”

“Get him, Kravitz!” Magnus cheered. “Take him to the mat!”

“Taako! Taako! Taako! You can do better than that!”

Taako flailed, finally getting an arm free and promptly knocked over his bowl perched precariously on the log, finally stopping them up short. They looked at each other, still breathing hard, and then at the overturned bowl. “Look what you did!” they both yelled, and then laughed again.

Kravitz reached back and grabbed Taako’s hat to plop it back on his head and then stood. This was…. Nice. It was nice to laugh with others, even if he was being laughed at just a little bit. “I should get ready for my shift.”

“We’ve got about ten hours until dawn,” Magnus said. “There’s four of us, so we’ll each take about two and a half hours. All you have to do, it to keep an eye on our surroundings. You might see stuff out there – actually you will _probably_ see stuff out there. You just need to make sure they don’t try to start trying to break in. Merle’s wards will hold for a long time against the undead. He’s a shitty Cleric, but he’s still a Cleric. You remember how to use this?” He handed Kravitz the rapier they’d never REALLY worked on.

“Pointy end goes in the enemy,” Kravitz recited the ONLY thing he’d learned and was clapped heartily on the back by Magnus.

“That’s the spirit!”

Taako came over and grabbed Kravitz’s cloak off the log, wrapping it around Kravitz’s shoulders. It was still warm from the fire. “Keep moving, it will help with the cold.” Taako secured the clasp and then took a step back. He opened his mouth as though he had more to add, but then stopped and nodded in a short and jerky manner. “Right.” Then he turned sharp on his heel and went over to his bed roll, burying himself in it and his colorful blankets.

Magnus and Merle lay down too and Kravitz began to slowly walk around their campsite, being sure to stay away from the very edge, just incase. He didn’t want to overstep it on accident. He noticed - Merle dropped off to sleep right away and began to snore. Magnus took a little longer, but eventually he seemed to be asleep too. Taako took far longer. Even though he had his eyes closed, Kravitz noticed that when he stopped walking Taako’s ears would twitch back in his direction until Kravitz began walking again. And he had two and a half hours of this.

Kravitz couldn’t see very far into the woods, but there was a feel – a kind of pressure lurking, just beyond his perception in the dark. Kravitz stopped and huffed, his breath white in the cold night. “Da dah dat da da, Dancing Lights,” he whispered, and four blue lights appeared, circling around his open palm. “Go,” he whispered, and threw them towards the trees, past the boundaries of the ward.

The soft blue light lit up the first few trees, cold and dark and empty. “Further.” A few more feet, back further away from the campsite. How far could they go? Taako hadn’t told him, but it couldn’t hurt to stretch their limits and find out now.

Two of the lights snuffed themselves out as they reached the limit of their range on their flanks, but the two closest to the center had just a little more give.

And then, one of the remaining blue lights pulled the shadows back from something big lurking beside one of the trees. It was large and hulking, his back stooped and dark brown fur on every area of exposed limb. It’s arms were wrapped in dirty bandages, and a crest of coarse orange fur went from his neck to the top of his stooped head. He had a wide jaw with teeth that dropped below his lip line, and yellow eyes that reflected the blue light like a cat. Across his chest was a black sash and around his waist was a dirty hank of blue material. The hyena headed General of Orcus. Flanking him only slightly visible in the poor light was a band Skeletons, clad in remnants of clothing and armor. The Gnoll General of the South seemed to smile at him in the faint blue light, his mouth opening and his tongue rolling out between his teeth. 

Kravitz quickly put the lights out and ran over to Magnus, shaking him awake.

“Magnus, Magnus, Magnus there’s something out there.” Kravitz kept his voice down, trying not to wake up the others just yet. Magnus would confirm if this was bad. If FELT bad. But damn, for someone sleeping in so dangerous a situation, Magnus was a pretty solid sleeper. 

“I told you there would be,” Magnus yawned and rolled over, pushing Kravitz back. “It’s fine.”

“No, Magnus,” he shook his shoulder again. “It’s like a hyena? But like a man. And it’s got a bunch a skeletons with it.”

Magnus rolled over and sat up. His hair was sticking out in all directions and it might have been funny if this were not so serious a situation. “Fuck, it’s the Gnoll General. Skeletal undead. Still,” Magnus pulled his sword sheath closer and stood. “I’ll take him over some of the others he’s got. We’ve never encountered this General in the field directly, but they say he’s resourceful. He and the Banshee Queen were never even heard of until after the Raven Queen fell. Don’t know what dark pit Orcus found them in, but don’t underestimate them.”

“This just keeps getting worse,” Kravitz complained and summoned the dancing lights again, sending them into the forest at all four corners of their camp, and startled to see that the skeleton army had not only moved forward, they had spread out around them.

“Okay, not good,” Magnus agreed and rolled to his feet. “Everyone up!” he called. “Skeletons!”

Taako and Merle scrambled awake, Merle tripping as his feet got tangled for a moment. “Fuck these guys, seriously,” Merle said and rubbed his hands together. “You want me to take them out, big fella?”

“No, Merle. Remember your spell slots.” Kravitz flexed his hands nervously. Spell slots. Everyone kept mentioning those, but Taako had never told him how many he had. Now did not seem like a really appropriate time to just find out on accident.

“Since when do I care about stuff like that?” Merle complained. “I just use spell slots I don’t have and call it good!”

“Not this time, Merle.” Magnus paused, and then sighed. “Well, actually… Okay. Okay fine. But use them carefully. We have a long night ahead of us. Kravitz,” Magnus pulled the BIG fiery sword out and tossed the sheath to the side. “Stay behind me.” This was the Magnus that Kravitz had first met in that alley – honestly not that long ago. Ready for a fight, serious and alert.

He liked the goof-ball better

“I want to help,” Kravitz protested, even as he shifted towards the back. “My fate is the fate of the party.”

Magnus opened his mouth to reply, but he was distracted as the gnoll and his skeletons stepped forward, right up to the edge of the ward, weapons drawn. 

“They can’t get through,” Merle reminded them, all laughter and joking gone from his voice. “The undead can’t pass through the barrier.”

The General swung his heavy head and one of the skeletons stepped forward, abruptly flying backwards like a fly in a zap trap, knocking over another skeleton that was standing too close. He stayed where he fell, his bit of clothing smoldering from the radiant damage. “Ha ha!” Merle jeered. “How do you like THEM apples?”

“God you are so OLD,” Taako complained, “Can you not taunt the undead maybe?”

“What? It’s not like they can get through my ward,” Merle pointed out. He smacked his Extreme Teen Bible against his open palm a few times, and Kravitz would almost swear that two of the skeletons in the very front flinched. “We got up for nothing. We should go back to bed.”

The General regarded them with contempt and gave the pile of bones an annoyed kick. Kravitz noticed him back up a few steps, but it didn’t look like retreating. Something was wrong. The General’s broad chest heaved and then he ran straight at them, passing over the boundary line of the ward without so much as a hitch, and nailed Merle with a with a surprise attack that sent him flying backwards.

“How is this possible!?” Taako yelled, trying to keep an eye on the horde whose skulls were chattering in excitement, but not moving closer to the ward.

“He’s not dead!” Magnus shouted as he tried to throw his shield in front of Merle to protect him from the General’s second attack. “Get around him, flank him!”

Merle was clutching his arm, bloody from the General’s attack. “Isn’t he supposed to be going after Kravitz?” Merle hollered, missing with a swing at the General’s kneecaps. “Watch that bite of his!”

Well if he was supposed to be the target, no one apparently told the General. Kravitz remained behind Magnus’s shielded protection, but it didn’t seem to matter as the General seemed solely focused on Merle. He didn’t even turn on Magnus or Taako when their attacks landed. He just howled and resumed his singular focus on their Cleric.

Cleric.

With their ward tied to his lifeforce.

“Magnus! You have to switch to protecting Merle!” Kravitz grabbed his shoulder and pointed to the ring of skeletons still waiting to engage. “He’s trying to bring down the ward!”

Magnus swung around, his eyes widening as he watched the General pummel strike Merle on top of the head and their Cleric dropped to the snow, unconscious. “Merle!”

“Magnus, behind you!”

The skeleton hoard surged forward waving their swords. Taako threw up a tremendous wave of force, but they were all around them. The General limped backwards now that his skeleton army could engage, licking his wounds and supporting himself on a tree.

Kravitz heard the quick ping! of three arrows hitting Magnus’s shield, and ducked a swing that came in from his right. They were completely overwhelmed. There were too many of them!

“Kravitz, get to the wagon and get out of here!” Magnus yelled, swinging his sword wide and taking down three, but more just stepped forward to fill the gap.

“I’m not leaving you guys!” Kravitz stabbed the skeleton nearest him, but it didn’t go down. So much for that ‘training’.

“If you die, it’s Game Over!” Taako shouted, “You’ve got to GO!”

Kravitz hesitated a moment longer and then disengaged, getting a good slice on his arm for it, but he didn’t stop running. The horses were stamping their feet nervously, ready to bolt at any moment. Taako kept having to distract himself from the enemy to cast calm over them. The skeletons were leaving them alone for now but Kravitz imagined as soon as they realized that Kravitz was trying to escape they would attack the horses too.

There was a flurry of movement on his left and Kravitz saw a skeleton clattering after him, too fast. He couldn’t outrun it. He could only hope it wouldn’t be enough to drop him. Kravitz braced himself for impact.

And then, Taako was there. Taako, pushing him out of the way. Kravitz stumbled whirled around, watching Taako sink to his knees and then slide down into the slush, his eyes glazed. “Taako!”

He took a step forward towards the elf, and then stumbled, pain flooding his back. There was the tip of a sword emerging from just under his armpit for a long second, before it was jerked backwards, sending white hot pain searing through his body. He gasped deeply, heard Magnus shouting. His heartbeat felt loud in his ears, and there was snow somehow under his hands. He could feel Taako’s heartbeat somewhere close by, frantic and fluttery like a weak bird, struggling, dying.

They were all dying. They’d underestimate the General, and Orcus. They were all going to die, and then it would be over for everyone. This plane would fall into complete chaos. And the Raven Queen. She’d never be Free.

Something solidified under Kravitz’s hands and he took a deep breath, and then another. Something pulsed in the back of his mind, and down to the very core of his being, power surging through his blood and making his ears ring. He swung upwards on instinct and stopped the swing coming down at his neck. He was ANGRY. He narrowed his eyes at the skeleton that had to tried to decapitate him, and then shoved it backwards, sending it careening away and into three others. A sharp wind swirled around him as he stood, fury coursing through his body – his and Hers. No more. He was over this.

Kravitz twirled the scythe in his hands and leveled it at the skeletons in front of him. “Alright, no more Mr. Nice Guy.”

~

Taako tried to will himself to move, to get up and protect Kravitz, but his legs refused to move. He wheezed a gasp of horror as he watched a skeleton stab Kravitz in the back and watch the boy stumble and then collapse to his hands and knees. Helpless tears full of rage leaked from his eyes. It wasn’t fair! Why couldn’t he save ANYONE he cared about?

A skeleton bigger than the rest with a double ax stalked over and Taako tried again to push himself up, to yell, to warn Kravitz, to alert Magnus and maybe he’d be able to do _something_. But his breath came out in a pained whimper. Then, he saw Kravitz’s back stiffen, and he moved – too fast! – sweeping around in a full and graceful arc, sending the skeleton flying back and clattering into a pile of bones.

There was a cold, sharp wind, and Kravitz stood, and Taako’s heart almost stopped. There, in his hands, was the weapon of the Raven Queen’s Reapers. He held it confidently, his body focused and poised, all evidence of his injuries gone from his confident stance.

Taako watched him, transfixed. The way he moved around the battlefield, fast and deadly efficient, swinging the scythe around with an ease and skill that he hadn’t seen in so long.

Kravitz moved in a wide circle, keeping the skeletons away from with Taako and Merle, keeping them at a distance, untouchable, _protected_ , so that Magus could get to them. Taako saw Magnus kneel beside Merle, and then come sliding through the snow to him.

His hands were shaking as he tried to uncork a potion and held it Taako’s lips. “Drink it!” he demanded, his voice gruff and tight. “Taako, drink it!”

Beside him Merle waddled over, still limping a little, his Extreme Team Bible in his hands, but Magnus leveled a wicked glare at him. “No healing, Merle! Pop her off instead!”

“I cast Guardian of Faith!” Taako was almost blinded as a bright, white light appeared in front of them, large white wings unfurling as she solidified, a massive sword in her hands. She took protective stance before them all, swinging massively at anything that dared get within her range, the skeletons she hit falling to the ground in a disarray of stray parts.

“Drink the potion, Taako!”

Taako almost choked as Magnus finally got tired of waiting and just poured it down his throat. Somewhere, he felt something faulter, a connection dim, and he saw HER for a brief moment, the Raven Queen’s stare burn through his thoughts. “No!” he gasped, and watched how, at the same time, Kravitz suddenly stumbled, his movements less precise. The skeletons made to move in on him, five on one. Taako grabbed the knife out of Magnus’s boot and stabbed himself in the hand, and immediately Kravitz rightened - skill and grace back.

Magnus scowled darkly and moved Taako to Merle’s lap. “Watch him. I’m going to go help Kravitz.” Kravitz adjusted eaily as Magnus ran up to his side. 

Taako held his injured hand to his chest and just… watched. Back to back they stood – deadly grace and brute power. It brought back bittersweet memories. He supposed, if this was the last thing he saw, it could be worse. Watching his boys kick some serious ass, that was pretty baller.

His eyes slid open as he heard someone approach and looked up. Kravitz stood over him, his eyes glowing purple. Slowly, he extended a hand towards Taako and somewhere there was music played by an unseen hand. Or maybe his ears were just ringing. “Mass Cure Wounds,” Kravitz said, his voice distant and unfocused.

Taako smiled a little, blood in his teeth. Babe, he thought, there’s no way you can cast 5th level spells yet. Nice try though. But then, a warm light washed over him, and he could breathe deep again. Kravitz’s eyelashes fluttered, his eyes turning back to blue, and the scythe vanished from his hands. Magnus caught him before he collapsed, lowering him gently onto the snow. Taako rolled over, clutching his side, and checked Kravitz’s pulse. He let out a shaky breath he was holding it when he found it strong and steady under his fingertips.

“Taako,” Magnus said, his voice low and serious even as Taako carefully moved Kravitz’s hair back out of his face. “We’ve got a really serious problem here.”

Taako ignored him, focusing on the boy instead, making sure that he’d been included in that healing spell too. He apparently had some 5th level shit he could pull out. Was that an always thing? He was pretty sure that he hadn’t written that down in his spell book. “Taako.” Nope, nope, not interested in this conversation. “ _Taako_.”

“That thing is soul bound, what do you want?” Taako finally grumbled. “Dumb luck that he was able to summon it.”

“You want to talk about how you being near death juiced him up?” Magnus folded his arms across his chest and Merle slunk away to start resetting his wards. “Or you stabbed yourself to keep him that way?”

“You think in eight years we never talked about what boosts his connection and power with the Queen?” Taako snapped. “The Souls of the Dead and Dying things call to Reapers. Drop it, Magnus.”

“Taako, you have to tell him.”

“No.” He hugged the unconscious boy closer, feeling him breathing. He squeezed his eyes closed, trying to banish the sight of the sword through Kravitz’s back. He was okay. He was okay. He was still alive. “I don’t want to scare him.”

“Is this better?” And maybe it would have been preferred if Magnus was shouting at him instead of his posture softening, moving to something sympathetic and no, no it was MUCH better to fight than be vulnerable. “He’s got to know something is up. He’d a smart kid. He’s going to start putting things together.”

“It’ll hurt less this way,” Taako insisted. “At least until this mission is over.”

“Hurt who, Taako? Him? Or you.”

“Fuck you.” Taako pressed his free hand to his eyes. “Go away, I’m done talking to you about this.”

Magnus sighed, the sad kind of sigh that Taako had heard far too much in the past decade. “Okay, Taako. I’m going to check the perimeter. Now that we know the General isn’t stopped by wards, we’re going to need to be hypervigilant when we stop.”

Taako let him walk away, taking in deep, heaving breaths as he tried to calm down. He missed his sister so MUCH at times like this. She always knew just how to cut through the bullshit of his mind and the layers of thoughts and ugh, feelings, and reach him. She’d take one look at this whole scene and plop herself down beside him, and lay on some good ‘ol Lup wisdom. Probably, “This is wack, dude.” And he’d laugh, maybe he’d start to cry too, but he’d laugh, because Lup just always had that effect on him. And he’d know, no matter what happened, or what was going to happen, she’d have his back. Whatever bad decision he was about to make, or mean thing was going to come out of his mouth, she’d be at his side. So the empty spot at his side just hurt even more like an open, festering wound that nothing could heal. 

Send help.

Where was she? Where was she after all this time, that SHE needed help? He needed help! He didn’t know what to do with… this. All this. Taako lay his hand on Kravitz’s chest, feeling him breathing. She’d find this hysterical. She’d find Kravitz adorable. She’d help Taako navigate what he should do next. SHE would probably side with him about NOT telling this baby about his past. Probably. Likely. Maybe. A little. No. No, she probably wouldn’t. She would probably give him that LOOK that he hated. That - you know exactly what I’m about to say because you know better, and this might be Grade A Messed Up, but you still gotta do the thing you’re avoiding - look.

And then, she’d hug him, and tell him, no matter what, she’d be with him and it was going to be okay.

~

_He is tired. He’d exhausted and staggering. But it’s done, and he’s flickering. He hears her scream, rage and pain, and turns in her direction, drawing strength from somewhere to try and go to their aid. But he doesn’t get far._

_He’s hit. A sweeping blow that crashes into his side. On a mortal body, his ribs would be crushed. What happens, is worse._

_He falls to the ground, pain blossoming out from his side like a sunburst. It hurts. Down to the very core of his soul, it hurts. It’s how he imagines poison would feel, spreading through his body, burning like fire._

_She screams again, this time in fear, and he rolls over onto his stomach, trying to crawl. They’re family. He has to help her. He somehow gets to his feet and runs, staggering, his arm wrapped around his middle, gasping through the pain, trying to ignore the way he can feel destruction creeping through his being._

_The earth rolls, and he unheads a fiend before it can finish rising, but the momentum causes him to fall and this time, he can’t force himself to his feet. But he can’t hear her anymore, slinging fire like a dragon. Maybe she got away._

_There’s screaming again. Frantic. It’s the sound of that voice that makes him try to open his eyes, but his vision isn’t working anymore. There are words he can’t quite make out through the fog of his mind, but the voice, the voice is familiar and important enough to make him try and struggle against the darkness. Pressure on his chest, tears falling onto his cheeks. “Don’t move. Just, just stay still. We’ll fix this.” A hysterical shriek and hands curl into his clothing. “Fix this!”_

_Don’t cry, he thinks. And his eyes slide closed. He can feel his body being tugged onto someone’s lap. Sound swirls, muddled, like waves crashing over his ability to make out what’s being said. The air smells like acid and death and the musty smell of nature healing that is having no effect. He thinks that hand is still on his chest, but he can’t feel it anymore. He wants to open his eyes – just see him once more. He can’t, but his hand twitches, and it’s grabbed tight._

_Something like electricity brushes against his skin and makes the wound throb. He grits his teeth and there is a kiss brushed against his hand. He feels the build up of radiant energy above him and gasps, he feels the warmth of a hand against his temples, pushing his hair out of his face. He wants to warn them, no, no don’t do that! But he has no breath to speak._

_“I cast – ”_

Kravitz woke suddenly and sharply, almost colliding foreheads with Taako who was leaning over him. “Hey! You’re okay,” Taako gabbed his hands and gave them a squeeze. “You, geeze you’re cold.”

“What?” Kravitz tried to look around, tried to remember what had happened even as Taako pushed and bullied him over to the fire. “What happened?” His eyes swept around the camp, taking note of Magnus slowly walking the perimeter, looking over at them with stormy eyes, and Merle asleep in his bed roll.

“We were attacked,” Taako said shortly. He opened a small crate by the edge of the wagon and pulled out a squat green bottle, paused, and then grabbed three more, tucking those into his pockets and then brought the first back for Kravitz, knocking it against his shoulder when he didn’t immediately take it. “Here, it will make you feel better.”

Kravitz took it with quiet thanks and took a sip. It immediately helped with his headache and kind of tasted like grape soda. Which was very weird since it was green. “Did we win?” Kravitz asked, taking another slow sip.

“Enough of a win to count,” Taako said shrugged and sat back down next to him. “Took out the skeletons, but the General disappeared during the fight.”

“Oh goody. Guess that means we’ll probably see him again.” Kravitz closed his eyes and tried to remember. The whole fight was kind of fuzzy. But he remembered…. He remembered… his eyes flew open with a gasp. “You were hurt!” He turned quickly, his eyes sweeping Taako up and down. “Are you okay?”

Taako blinked a few times and then put his hand on his chest, the most falsely cheerful sound coming out of his mouth. “Oh yeah, Taako’s right as rain. Mostly. Physically. This shirt needs mending, but Magnus is going to make EYES if anyone casts anything else unnecessary tonight, so we’ll deal.” 

Kravitz managed a weak smile, really just a quirk of the lips, and looked over at Magnus. He could believe that. At least if Taako was joking around he probably wasn’t dying, but Kravitz wasn’t about to weigh in on the mental trauma. “He only does it because he cares.” Though from what he had observed the past few days, these three would probably be making bad jokes while staring down Death.

“What else do you remember?” Taako’s voice cut into his thoughts. Quiet, but almost cautious.

“Only bits and pieces,” Kravitz admitted, staring at his hands, flexing them a little. He’d been holding…. “Did I fight?”

“Yeah, a bit.” Taako pushed on his head, coaxing it down to his shoulder. “Those near-death brushes can mess with the short-term memory. Don’t worry. We’ll talk about it later. Just rest. We’re leaving at first light, as soon as it’s safe.”

Kravitz closed his eyes again, taking a deep breath. But still, inspite of Taako’s words, he tried to remember the fight. But all he could recall, really recall, was locking gazes with something with deep red eyes behind a black veil.

And She had smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gave me an AWFUL time with it’s edits. But Chapter 7 is already written and just needs to be edited. We’re at the halfway mark now!  
> With the social distancing going on right now, I hope to be able to work through the last of the chapters pretty regularly. Come say hi to me on Instagram! Minervanyx


	7. Instinct

No one slept very well – every little sound felt like a new attack about to happen. Kravitz woke up several times, each time feeling like he had woken up from falling from very high. Or, being pulled down under water to smother. But when he opened his eyes Taako was there, staring silently out into the darkness. His eyes reflected the campfire light like a cat. At some point, he’d retrieved his purple blanket with the stars and had wrapped it around the two of them, sharing warmth in front of the fire as the temperature dropped further as the night deepened.

The Guardian of Faith continued to stand guard, her being casting a soft glow into the darkness and her sword poised and ready. “She’s there for 8 hours,” Taako whispered against his hair when he noticed him staring at her. “Merle left her on guard. The spell slot was already blown, so it’s fine.”

Once when he woke, Taako seemed to be asleep. Or, at least, his eyes were closed and his breathing was steady. Across from them, sitting around the fire, Magnus and Merle were both awake and talking quietly, their faces drawn and serious. Kravitz kept his eyes half closed, watching them as they began to gesture towards Taako. Or, him? Actually, he was pretty sure he heard his name.

What had HAPPENED during the fight?

He wished he could remember. He remembered something in his hands, comfortable but heavy. He remembered the clatter of skeletons collapsing in pieces at his feet, but he couldn’t remember… Doing it. More like something was acting through him. Like he was an extension, or an arm of something else. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that something significant had _happened_. And he couldn’t recall it.

He shifted his weight and Magnus and Merle stopped talking abruptly. Drat! He should have been trying to listen harder. He pretended to yawn and moved closed to Taako, hoping they’d resume talking. But they were silent, and then Magnus got up and resume his pacing.

As the first rays of dawn began to pierce through the darkness, Magnus started pulling them up from their little campsite, throwing everything into the wagon half hazzardly. Even Taako’s cooking supplies didn’t get gentle treatment except to make sure nothing made TOO much noise. “We’re not wasting time,” he warned everyone as he bridled the horses. 

Kravitz climbed into the wagon and took a deep breath. Ever since last night, everything felt like reality as he knew it had moved one inch to the left. Something was different, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe almost dying, for real this time instead of just being swiped at by a ghoul, had really given him a taste of how dangerous this was. (No, no that wasn’t it, but what WAS it?) It was bothersome, but he didn’t know how to resolve it without worrying the boys. So he made himself let it go. Right now wasn’t the right time. “How far away are we from where Lucretia marked on the map?”

“A week,” Magnus admitted as a gave the reigns a quick slap. “Maybe two. And eventually, we _will_ reach a point where there are no more towns around.”

Kravitz sighed and rubbed his forehead with two fingers. Great. This was just great. “So we have to shake them completely in order to move semi-safely later. Unless…” Kravitz paused, thinking, and idea half formed.

Everyone turned to look at him in a kind of involuntary compulsion. “Unless?” they chorused.

“Unless,” Kravitz said slowly, trying to think how to phrase it that didn’t sound absolutely insane and like a death wish, “Unless we let them capture us. Alive, I mean. If we could convince one of the generals that they definitely wanted to deliver us to Him alive, then we could get an escort to where we need to go. And since the generals have a rivalry, they’d protect us against any other groups that might want to take that honor for themselves.”

Silence met him so deafening you would hear a cricket fart.

“I’m not saying it’s not a gamble,” Kravitz spread his hands wide, “But at this point, I feel we need to consider all options.”

“Thanks, I hate it,” Taako declared. “I vote we don’t try something that will probably most certainly get at least one of us killed.”

“Then why are you hanging out with us?” Merle said, jostling him a little playfully. “That’s like our every day.” 

Taako frowned, hard. All play of goofing gone from his expression. “I say we stick with the original plan. We sneak around, get to the fortress. We find the Raven Queen, set her free, and then…” And then what? Taako fell silent abruptly and his mouth snapped closed.

Kravitz wondered what he was going to say. And then. Then what? Everyone lives happily ever after? Angus gets to start aging again and go back to his life. Magnus goes back to his dogs. Merle returns to his camp and his kids. His Family. And Kravitz would go back to the Plane of Thought. What would happen for Taako, after this was all over. Taako gets to move on with his sister still missing? For Taako, it wasn’t going to be over. Just, revenge accomplished. Empty, cold satisfaction. What kind of life was Taako facing when this was over?

Taako seemed to realize that everyone was waiting on him and took a deep breath. “We go to Waterdeep. We don’t have the resources to go off plan.”

Plan. Well that plan was pretty much a mess as soon as they left Neverwinter. Besides - “We have you,” Kravitz pointed out stubbornly, “What happened to, ‘I can stretch resources like a pro?’”

“I’m a wizard, not a miracle worker,” Taako growled. His hair was practically fluffing out with irritation. “We need to stop at least one more real town to restock our supplies before our last push to the fortress.”

“Going to a town at this point is asking to be surrounded,” Kravitz argued, “We’ve seen one general, and heard another. And this isn’t even their territory! You said it’s the Wraith in the West.”

“Skeletons, ghouls, and the Wraith leads an army of incorporeal… mostly specters and ghosts,” Magnus said a little nervously. “I really hate those things. Super delicate in sunlight though.”

“If we go to Waterdeep like this, we’re inviting the town into extreme danger,” Kravitz folded his arms across his chest. “Wards are not failproof. We have a responsibility to not drag all of this to their front door without a little more precaution.”

“I have a responsibility to me,” Taako insisted as he jabbed his thumb against his chest. “Me. Myself. Keeping me alive. That’s it.”

“You don’t believe that, Taako.” Kravitz snapped back and Taako froze rigid still like lightening had gone up his back. Kravitz realized with a sinking feeling that he’d stepped too far.

Taako’s ears burned and flattened against his head. “You don’t know a thing about me,” he seethed through clenched teeth, “You don’t know what I believe!”

“Now let’s settle down boys.” Merle put a hand on each of their elbows. “No one slept very well last night. We’re all tired and stressed out. But that’s no reason to start yelling at each other. We’re in this together.”

Kravitz folded his arms across his chest and Taako scowled. But they both moved to opposite sides of the wagon and sat down.

“Good, good,” Merle said softly. “Now we utterly decimated the skeleton army last night,” and Kravitz’s head _hurt_ , “That actually leaves us with an open pocket of space. They’ll have to send more troops to fill the hole left by the skeletons. We’ve got a little leeway. Not a lot, but a little.” 

“We go to Waterdeep,” Taako said firmly, “We restock. We look at the map. We can reevaluate the plan from here. But we’re GOING to Waterdeep, where you will be behind a ward tonight.” Kravitz leveled an annoyed glare at him. “For tonight,” Taako repeated, “Just tonight. We’ll think about it afterwards. Meet me halfway, Kipper.”

Kravitz sighed and put his hand through his hair. “Fine.” He didn’t like it. But he supposed that Taako was at least considering it. And why did TAAKO get to be incharge?

“Well now that it’s decided,” Magnus said, trying to break the tension. “Just sit back and get comfortable. We’ve got a long way to go.”

Kravitz tried not to feel like he’d completely lost the argument, even though Merle implied that there were concessions on both sides. It didn’t FEEL like they were listening to him, or his concerns. And since apparently he was KINDA a key player here, shouldn’t he have double the votes? 

With a heavy sigh, Kravitz folded his arms on over the side of the wagon and starred out into the woods. The poor upkeep of the road spoke of how very little the road was used anymore. People didn’t leave their warded city unless they had to.

Which was why he was so startled to see a little girl standing by the side of the road, a toy clutched in her hands. “Stop!” Kravitz pitched to his feet without thinking about it, almost tumbling out of the wagon. “Magnus, stop!”

Magnus pulled the horses to an abrupt stop and this time Kravitz did fall over backwards onto a pile of their bedding. “What? What is it?

“I saw something. A girl.” Kravitz pulled a pair of jorts off his head and pointed into the trees, but the little girl was gone. “She was there! Right there.”

Everyone leaned out of the wagon to check the side of the road, but… “I don’t see anything, homie. Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” Kravitz insisted. “We can't leave a child out here - it's dangerous!”

“Now is not exactly a good time for a side trip,” Merle pointed out.

“We are going to Waterdeep ANYWAY,” Kravitz pointed out. “What’s one more passenger?” He whirled onto Magnus. He was pretty sure that he was the linchpin in this. Maybe Taako was calling the shots on stopping in Waterdeep but he was pretty sure that they’d all follow Magnus in a pinch. “It’s a _child_ , Magnus.” He took a deep breath and tried his best to give puppy dog pout, leaning his head to the side and opening his eyes wide. “Please.” This. Felt. Awkward.

Now he wasn’t 100% sure that Magnus was going to fall for it, but he either had a higher charisma modifier than he realized, or Magnus was just a big softie. Magnus squeezed his eyes shut really hard and grit his teeth. “Uuuugh! Fine! Everyone, we’re turning around. Show me where, Kravitz.”

Ignoring Taako’s ranting about how this was a horrible idea, Kravitz directed Magnus back to the side of the road where he’d seen a child. She wasn’t there, but there was a narrow path that headed back into the trees. “She must have gone this way.”

Magnus nodded, pretty obviously ignoring Taako’s glower and moved the wagon over to the side of the road and tied the horses up to the trees. “Twenty minutes,” Magnus allowed. “We look for her for twenty minutes, and if we don’t find her, we’ve got to get going.”

“Accepted,” Kravitz agreed and took the offered rapier when it appeared from the arsenal that Magnus carried. It was almost getting familiar now. He took a step down the trail but was grabbed by the back of his cloak. He looked over his shoulder and Taako shook his head.

“Nope. You’re not leading this mission. You’re in the middle. Right next to the Cleric.” Merle gave him a thumbs up, and a little daisy sprouted from his thumb. Weird.

The trail was really more like a deer path, and they were forced to walk single file for most of it. Kravitz expected to hear birds, but everything was weirdly silent expect for the sound of their feet through the grass and Taako’s ranting. “Last time we did a side quest,” Taako grumbled, “We saved an orc child who decided that shooting a flaming dwarf was the BEST idea, and we all know how that ended.”

Finally, just when Kravitz thought that Magnus was going to call it and turn them back around, the trees parted around the ruins of an extremely old and dilapidated mansion. The balcony on the upper floor was hanging from a few precarious fastenings, and the front door was gone completely. 

“She’s living here?” Magnus asked, a little appalled. “This isn’t a home for a kid.”

“Maybe she’s just hiding,” Merle offered, “Kids love hide and seek. Why my boy Mookie, he’ll hide all day if you forget to look for him, and he loves it!”

“You are the worst parent.” Taako threw his hands up in the air. “This is why we never let you babysit Angus.”

They approached the building carefully, mostly carefully. They weren’t running up to it or another. But nothing seemed to stir. “Hello?” Magnus called. “Little girl?”

“Hail and well met!” Taako chimed in. “If you’re there, holler. If you’re not, we’re leaving!”

“Come on, Taako,” Magnus nudged him with his elbow. “We gotta go check it out. Gotta at least see if there’s someone here.”

“There’s no one,” Taako insisted as he dragged his feet. “There’s no one and this is going to end badly. We know it’s going to end badly, but we’re still going to do it? How am I the only one seeing what a bad idea this is?”

“You know,” Merle said slowly, “Taako does have one good point. Should we really bring Kravitz deeper into this spooky house?”

Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. “Oh come on!” Kravitz complained, “This was my idea!”

“All the better reason that you stay out here.” Magnus pat him on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. You can stand watch!”

“Merle, do your thing.”

“Right. I cast Zone of-”

“No!” Taako shrieked, “Not that one! What the ever loving fuck anyway? How would that help in this situation at ALL?”

“You said my thing,” Merle pointed out. “That’s my thing. Zone of Truth is my thing.”

“Merle, stop waving around your thing, there are kids here!” Magnus laughed.

“What is WRONG with you three?” Kravitz asked, tapping his fingers in irritation against his arm.

Taako’s laughter choked off and he turned around fast. “Nothing. Do the OTHER thing, Merle.”

“Right.” Merle took a grimy piece of chalk out of pocket in his vest pocket and drew a circle on the floor around Kravitz. “Now this is a maaagic circle,” he said as he repocketed the chalk. “As long as you stay here, you’ll be safe.”

“You get that?” Taako demanded as he twirled back around. “Don’t move from this spot. You stay here, stay in the circle, and don’t cross that line. Capische?”

Kravitz rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest. This was stupid. “I get it.”

“Stay inside the circle,” Taako repeated and hooked his umbrella onto his shoulder. “We’ll be right back.” Kravitz watched them leave and then childishly tapped his foot outside the circle. Ha!

The house settled, weirdly quiet with their exit down the hall. Everything seemed to settle in, suspended in time. He couldn’t even hear the boys tromping around. But he supposed that meant that they didn’t find anything yet.

He could imagine that this was a really lovely house once upon a time. Standing there, turning around slowly, he just took it in. Patches of sunlight came through the holes in the roof and the dust in the air almost looked like glitter. There was something almost pretty in the abandoned, nearly reclaimed nature of the house. 

The flutter of wings snapped Kravitz back to attention, and a raven let itself in through one of the holes, alighting onto an old unworking grandfather clock. “Hello,” Kravitz said softly. “Fancy meeting you here.”

The raven preened its wings and ruffled its feathers before looking straight at him and let out a throaty caw. “I’m supposed to wait here,” Kravitz reminded it. “The boys will be right back.”

The raven flew over to his shoulder, landing more gently than Kravitz would have expected. It was also heavier than he’d anticipated. It took a lock of his hair in it’s beak and gave it a tug. Something pulsed in the back of his mind and he took a deep breath. “Okay,” he agreed, and took one step. And when Taako didn’t appear to yell at him, he took another.

“All right, so we’re doing this,” he said to the raven. “What is it?” The raven ruffled its feather again and Kravitz huffed. Okay, not helpful. “What do you need me to do?”

SHE whispered in the back of his thoughts and Kravitz closed his eyes. Her presence settled around him like a heavy blanket, threading through his senses. Upstairs.

Half the steps were missing, and the other half looked ready to rot away. Kravitz had to pick his way carefully up them to the next floor. It was cold on the second floor and the patches of light let in by the destroyed roof seemed dimmer and to cause more shadow than they alleviated.

There were four doors down the hallway, but Kravitz ignored them all, moving directly for the second one on the left and carefully opened the door. This one, he was drawn to. She was guiding him here.

The room was just as old and decrepit as the rest of the house. Pieces of furniture were laying on their sides, damaged and decomposing away. Months and insects had eaten holes in the chair cushion and the bedspread was faded where the sunlight had bleached it year after year. But he ignored them all and stepped forward scooping a tattered bunny doll off the floor. Yes, this was what They had felt.

“It’s okay,” he said softly and tucked the bunny into the cook of his arm. “You can come out.”

The space beside the bed shimmered and the little girl appeared, the wall visible through her translucent body. “Please,” she whispered, her voice wavering like it was being shouted through water. Silver tracks of spent tears on her face. “Please, mister-”

“It’s okay,” Kravitz repeated, keeping his voice gentle as he kneeled before her. She seemed like such a tiny thing. Maybe a halfling, or a gnome. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“No,” she sobbed, balling her hands up in her dress, “No, it’s a trap!”

The door swung closed and the raven squawked, fleeing from his shoulder to a place over the window. There, emerging from the shadows was a corpse clothed in leather armor, his eyes white and a serrated sword in his hands.

“Well this is hardly fair,” Kravitz whispered and got slowly to his feet, wondering how long it would take draw the rapier. Could he get it before this thing attacked? He hated to say it, mostly because he was still annoyed with him, but maybe Taako had a good point about him staying in one place and not, you know, go wandering off by himself in an area where he was already a confirmed target.

His best plan was to run. To get out the window and use the damaged balcony to scramble to another room. The creature didn’t look like it had GREAT dexterity - he just needed to be faster than it. He could probably survive a jump from the balcony to the ground if he had to. Maybe not unscathed but he’d land, and if he could get back to the circle, he might be okay until the others came back to both kill this thing and heal him. He just needed to be faster than it.

Kravitz took a small step back towards the window, and then another. The corpse stepped forward with more finesse than something literally falling apart deserved and Kravitz had a very bad feeling that this was something more than typical shambling zombie. He tensed to run, muscles coiled to spring towards the window.

And then… the door exploded in a hurricane of splinters, slamming into the monster and sending him crashing to the floor with a roar.

Kravitz blinked rapidly, trying to see through the dust. Someone stood in the doorway clothed all in silver. The corpse got to it’s feet and turned on her, and then was slammed into the wall by a column of fire. Kravitz brought his arm up to shield his face from the intense heat that swirled around and past him like it had a mind of it’s own, purposefully avoiding him.

The heat faded as fast as it appeared and all that was left of the monster was an ashy mark on the wall. He swung back towards the door but, she was gone.

Then he heard another door slam and the sound of someone running, a stair break, and a lot of cursing coming from someone that sounded like a lot like Merle. A few moments later, Magnus almost slid past the doorway, barely able to right himself. “Kravitz! Are you okay?”

Kravitz nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “Yes, yes I think so.”

“Okay good. Then what the hell Kravitz! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

“No, I just…” He turned and saw the little girl still huddling there against the bed, her eyes big and wide. Slowly, he held out his hands for the little girl’s, “I found a Haunted Doll.” She hesitated, and then carefully put her hands in his, her eyes widening when they connected and didn’t just pass through. 

“Who are you?” she asked, slowly getting to her feet.

Kravitz handed her back her bunny and she hugged it to her chest. “A friend,” he said and took a step back before extending his hand. A scythe appeared in his hold. Its weight was comfortable and familiar in a way that he’d only ever felt with music. That feeling of being complete. “It’s time to go.”

“I don’t want to go back,” she sniffled. “HE has no use for children except as bait.”

“No,” Kravitz said and put his hand on her shoulder. She shimmered and resolved into a glowing ball of white light. “It’s time to go home.”

The scythe cut a swatch into space, and Kravitz saw a shimmering lake beyond. The little ghost glowed brighter and Kravitz smiled, giving her soul a little push. “Go, be at rest.” She disappeared through the rift and it closed behind her.

As it closed, two things happened at once. The scythe Kravitz held vanished and he felt incredibly dizzy – like a puppet with half its strings suddenly cut.

Magnus dashed forward and caught his elbow, holding him up. “I’m okay,” Kravitz promised, his stomach rolling. “I’m, I’m okay.”

“You know,” Magnus said, giving him the hairy eyeball, “Usually when someone says, stay here and don’t move, it’s for a reason.”

“Yeah well.” Kravitz gestured to the raven who gave it’s wings a couple good flaps. “She is very convincing.”

The raven cawed loudly as if in agreement and Magnus gave it an apprehensive look. “Oh this is happening too now? Cool. Let’s go.”

Kravits rolled his eyes grabbed his arm stop him. “Oh, before I forget. Hey Magnus? What the fuck?”

Magnus froze and then gave him an uneasy smile. “Pardon?” he asked, his voice raising two octaves.

“Oh no,” Kravitz shook his head and almost fell over. Okay, don’t do that yet. “What was that? This? Me.” He gestured to himself and the waved his hand over to where the ghost child had vanished. “Because let me tell you, my knowledge of weapons is STILL at pointy end goes into the enemy, and certainly doesn’t involve being able to summon something that looks like weapon and cuts holes into space. AND you’re not at all surprised by this.”

Magnus had come into the room ready for a fight and ready to yell at him. Now though? Now he looked nervous. And that made Kravitz suspicious. “Sounds like magic stuff to me,” Magnus hedged, inching towards the door. It was almost comical if not REALLY starting to piss Kravitz off. “Why don’t you ask Taako? He’s the magic guy. I’m just the hit stuff guy.” 

“Wait a minute! This conversation isn’t over!” Kravitz followed Magnus out of the room and saw Taako and Merle coming up the stairs, now overgrown with vines. Taako was either breathing hard, or seething. Either way, he did not look happy and right now, Kravitz was willing to shelve his interrogation of Magnus to save his own skin. “Oh stay _inside_ the circle,” Kravitz said, moving slightly behind the fighter. “Okay, that one’s on me.”

“You could have gotten killed!” Taako exploded, and Kravitz shamelessly used Magnus as a shield, trying to keep him between himself and Taako. “What were you thinking! Not only did you leave the safe place we left you, you went alone, and no one knew where you were!”

“Would it help if I was sorry?” Kravitz asked, ducking an attempt to grab him, “Because I AM sorry, Taako. If it makes you feel better, there’s not a scratch on me. She,” he paused and looked around. “Where did she go?”

“Gotcha!” Taako grabbed him into a headlock. “Now you are going to start listening to your elders, you got that? This isn’t our first rodeo. When we say STAY its not for shits and giggles!”

“I’m very sorry, Taako,” Kravitz repeated himself, and looked at the other two as best he could. Taako was stronger than he looked. “I’m sorry, everyone. Yes, of course I shouldn’t have moved.” But at the time, when the raven had appeared and She had called, he hadn’t really felt like he had a choice. He’d been drawn away without must resistance almost like following a siren song. He didn’t know if he could have resisted even if one of them had been there to try and stop him. And that was honestly a little scary.

Taako finally let go of him and stepped back. “Good. Are we good here? Can we go already?”

“We should actually probably go,” Magnus said, “We’re wasting time.”

“Wait,” Kravitz stalled as Magnus and Taako frog-walked him towards the stairs, “That woman who took out the monster. Did anyone see where she went?”

Magnus shook his head. “We looked, Kravitz, there’s no one else here. No one living anyway. Let’s go.”

Kravitz wasn’t sure if they were being totally sincere, but he managed to bite his tongue and nod. He just hoped that she was alright.

The wagon was very thankfully right where they left it, and honestly, now that he was thinking about it, it would have behooved someone to attack the horses or steal their wagon while they were gone. There was no way they’d get to Waterdeep tonight if they had to walk. Also, all their supplies were in there. Okay, NOW that he was thinking about it - that was dumb. He probably wouldn’t encourage something like this again.

And yet, if She called again, well… he didn’t know what he’d do.

It was just starting to get dark when Magnus announced that they were about 20 minutes away from Waterdeep. “We’re going to make a dash for it. Last bathroom break. Go now.”

Kravitz nodded and jumped off the wagon and wandered just beyond the trees where he stopped short and his breath caught in his throat. A woman stood in the fading rays of the sunlight, clothed all in white and silver, her skin so pale that it was almost translucent. Her hair hung, overgrown and stringy in her face. Her arms were bare and her dress torn. Her hand were lose at her sides and her head bowed. He’d almost think she was frozen in place if her long ears didn’t twitch at every sound. 

“Was it you?” he asked quietly, trying not to startle her. “Was it you, back at the house?”

“Kravitz?”

He only glanced back towards the sound of Magnus’s voice through the trees for the barest second, and then she was there, in his face, yellow eyes burning into him. She hovered off the ground to meet his gaze, an unearthly glow coming off her skin now and he started having a really, really bad feeling about this. Slowly as they stared at each other, black veins in her face began radiating out from her eyes.

Then she grinned, all teeth, and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around to use him as a shield for the ray of frost Taako sent hurtling their way.

It was so COLD that it stole his breath away, leaving his gasping and choking for air.

“Let him go!”

Kravitz felt the banshee queen grin, her cold face pressed against his and a kiss brushed over his cheek as he wheezed. Her bony fingers traveled slowly up his shoulders, towards his throat. She smirked, daring Taako to try anything. Kravitz swallowed hard, and her nails pricked his skin, drawing blood. He made a high pitched, long nervous sound and she chuckled, low and dark in his ear.

It was the reaction he was hoping for. “Light!” He threw his hands up in her face and she screamed and let go of him to cover her eyes. 

Kravitz bolted to Taako’s side as Magnus emerged from behind the banshee, screaming, “Magnus!” He caught her square between the ribs, sending her stumbling back for a moment before she dug her heels in and launched herself at him, attacking with wide swipes of her claws, growling deep in her throat, spiraling into short shrieks.

“Are you okay?” Taako asked, his hands warm on Kravitz’s cheeks as he cast another spell into his body. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Kravitz pushed Taako’s hands away, “Help Magnus!”

The banshee was fast. Magnus may have gotten a surprise hit on her, but soon it didn’t matter. She avoided every bolt of radiant energy Merle sent her way and still managed to get close enough to be in melee range.

Unlike the Gnoll General, the Banshee seemed set with Kravitz as her target and Merle and Magnus combined were barely enough to keep her engaged. Taako stayed in front of Kravitz like a shield, trying to nail her with a spell, but she was too fast for anything but wide spread spells. Kravitz kept looking left and right, trying to see if her army was approaching while they were occupied. But, right now, she seemed to be alone.

“Stop with the AOE’s Taako!” Magnus yelled, barely bringing his sword up in time to defend his face from her claws. “She’s just dodging most of them and you’re getting us instead!”

The banshee leaned her head back and wailed, something so horribly sad sounding and… Taako’s body suddenly went rod straight and still. Kravitz tried to shake it off like the had the ghast back home, but she was far more powerful. The banshee ducked another head shot from Magnus and kicked him in the sternum, sending him flying backwards into Merle, knocking them both onto their backs.

She turned quickly and ran at Taako, stopping right in his face, exactly eye to eye. Her face twisted into a grimace and she opened her mouth. Kravitze squeezed his eyes closed, bracing for the scream.

And then, she was gone.

Kravitz blinked twice and took a deep breath, able to move again.

“What happened?” Merle asked, rolling to his feet. “Where did she go?”

“Whatever made her go,” Magnus was holding together a nasty looking wound on his abdomen, “We’re lucky. She was holding back and we still got our asses kicked.”

“That was holding _back_!?”

“We have to go.” Magnus gave Merle a dirty look as he healed him, with a spell – dangit Merle! “Everyone in the wagon, we’re out of here.”

“She could have killed me,” Kravitz said bluntly as he climbed up into the wagon. “Why didn’t she?” She just played with him like a mouse instead of just going in for the kill. Maybe he was just lucky that most sound had musical potential. But she definitely could have ended things far sooner if she’d wanted to.

“Does it matter?” Taako slapped Merle’s hand down and handed Kravitz a potion as the wagon lunched and then began moving. “Drink.”

“I don’t like it,” Merle said, very, VERY reluctantly accepting a potion Taako passed to him next. “If she wasn’t here to really fight, why was she here at all?”

“We’re probably walking into a trap.” It was Magnus who voiced what Kravitz realized they were probably all thinking. “But at this point, we don’t have a choice. There’s no time to try to go somewhere else. We’ll just have to figure out a new plan for tomorrow. Right now, we have to get to Waterdeep as quickly as possible. We’ll be safe once we get there.”

Kravitz sighed and leaned over the side of the wagon, watching the trees fly by as fast as the horses could carry them. He just… didn’t think it would be that easy. 

The raven was following them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh WHAT UP!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Drop me a review if you are enjoying the story, they are literally giving me life these days.


	8. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secretes are spilled and things get more complicated.

It was all Taako could do to sit on his hands and not reach over and grab Kravitz by the back of his collar and pull him away from the edge of the wagon as it hurtled down the road to Deepwater, trying to outrun the sunset. The chance that something was going to pop out of the ground and grab Kravitz was pretty low and Taako knew he needed to cool his jets for a hot minute and stop freaking out. 

STILL possible, but pretty low.

But after a full 24 hours and three separate attacks on his boy during that time, well, forgive him for being a little jumpy!

Magnus kept glancing over his shoulder, making weird faces at him and tossing his head in Kravitz’s direction. God what the FUCK is it, Toto? Johnny fall down the well? What the fuck did Kravitz do this time? He’d already summoned his scythe, so whatever the FUCK could have put ants in Magnus’s pants like this? Did he start phasing into a skeleton? Because fuck all if Taako wasn’t in the mood for ANY of it.

He didn’t want to think about how APPARENTLY the Gnoll General wasn’t undead. That the Banshee Queen was closer than anyone had realized. And that something was rapidly happening to Kravitz the longer he stayed on this Plane. A 5th Level Spell! That wasn’t normal homie! Neither were the glowing purple eyes. 

Taako checked on him again real quick, just to make sure he was okay. Those blue eyes were still peering out into the woods, but his thoughts were clearly far from here. His brow was furrowed, deep in thought. Taako didn’t even want to try to imagine what he was putting together because that was just bad news bears for everything. Especially for himself. The completely awful truth he didn’t want to face was – sooner or later Kravitz was going to tug on that right piece and the whole Jenga tower that Taako was being so careful with was going to come crashing down around his head. You know, if something didn’t manage to kill Kravitz before then.

It was all tits up and honestly he just wanted to lock Kravitz safely into some pocket dimension and KEEP him there until they were where they needed to be.

Actually, now THERE was an idea. And he could probably get Merle onboard with it. Magnus might protest a little, and Kravitz would be _hopping_ mad when they let him out, but there was only so much more Taako’s nerves could take!

As they approached the walls of Deepwater, magical flares went off, lighting up their incoming position. The rack-shod wall around the city had sharpened pikes around the base, and here and there were piles of bones that no one had bothered to clean up post zombie or skeleton attack.

This had to be one of the least welcoming places Taako had ever been. Now he was NOT about to go back on his earlier objection to Kravitz’s plan, but as they went through the gates of Deepwater, it didn’t feel like crossing into safety.

If felt like entering a cage.

Deepwater didn’t share the same kind of ‘surviving but okay’ feel of Neverwinter. It was a much hungrier and desperate town. Haggard, pinched faces looked out from doors that quickly closed when they were noticed, locks and bolts being drawn tight. It was quickly decided without discussing it that they wouldn’t announce themselves here. The more they tried to slip under the radar right now, the better. 

Taako looked over at Kravitz as they moved past the houses. The boy’s lips set in a firm line, clearly unhappy to be here at all. No, they were not letting anyone know who they were. He could only imagine the desperation that might make these people throw Kravitz to the undead if they knew he was their target.

Okay maybe FINE. Kravitz was probably right that they were inviting danger to this town by being here. But what choice did they have?

Coming in as simple travelers, it took three tries before they were able to find an inn with room for them, and even then, it was one room that they were going to put all four into. That was fine – they were only here for the night.

Taako even pulled his hat down low over his face to try not to be recognized. But the inn keeper seemed less interested in who they were and more interested in how much they could pay. At least they were able to produce four rations cards which were checked over three times before they were accepted. 

“Come on, Karley.” Taako took Kravitz by the arm as though he was going to wander off like an untrained puppy and went up the poorly maintained stairs to check out their room.

He considered for a moment as they made their way down the cramped little hall, complaining about how they had to share a room, to at least keep up appearances. But shit was already rough, there was no reason overdoing it. Besides, Kravitz hadn’t said a word for over an hour and THAT was more concerning than sharing a room with the usual chucklefucks. It was just to sleep for one night, and then they’d be gone in the morning.

Magnus pushed open the door for them and they all poked their heads in, one after the other. “Well this room sucks,” Merle announced. And Taako whole heartedly agreed. The ‘bed’ was more like a mattress on the floor that would only fit one of them (not that he wanted to share a bed with any of them) and a few extra blankets in the lonely little trunk by the window that had been nailed shut.

Magnus looked around and put his hands on his hips. “Roll you for it?” he offered about the bed.

“Ahhh fuck, why not?” Taako groused, letting Kravitz go now that there were four solid walls around him and no one that might be trying to kill him. “Who’s got dice? Not you, Magnus. Those are cheater dice.”

“I think I forgot my dice,” Merle said helpfully. “Didn’t think I’d need them.”

Taako rolled his eyes dramatically and pulled a couple dice out of his bag. “You’re all lucky I come prepared for all of us.”

They rolled for the bed, and somehow Merle won, which was suspicious, but only Taako really argued about it. “No, no way that just happened. I want a redo! You didn’t even BRING dice!” Kravitz simply spread out his bed roll on the floor without a fuss while Magnus whined some more that Merle had the shortest legs, the whole bed was totally wasted on him! 

Having properly argued against Merle getting the bed, Taako turned them both out as Magnus started trying to estimate how many Merles tall he was, and took a quick look about the room. As shitty as it was, at least a roof was better than being outdoors. And with the extra set of walls and door that Merle could ward before they went to sleep, they should probably be fine.

Kravitz was quietly sitting on his bed roll, staring at his hands. It was kind of setting Taako on edge. He wanted to shake him, or something. Bring him back to the present with the rest of them, instead of stuck with his thoughts.

“I’m going to go take a look at the town wards,” Merle announced once he had finished rolling all over the bed, making sure that he’d ‘claimed’ it and that the likelihood of Magnus trying to take it while he was away was at least limited. “See if there’s anything I can help add. I can’t imagine a lot of Clerics just camp out here in Deepwater.”

“Save at least one for us,” Taako reminded him. “Actually, save at least two. Then we’ll be sure you don’t accidently blow all your spell slots because you didn’t count.”

Speaking of spells – Taako went over to Kravitz to replace the divining spell, and felt him tense when he put his hands on his shoulders, trying to shrug him off. “Stop it,” Taako said very quietly, his tone low and under his breath. “Hide from divination.” 

Behind him he could FEEL Magnus and Merle exchange glances. 

Magnus cleared his throat. “Alright. Wards. You go check on those. You sure you don’t want anyone to go with you?” Kravitz’s head lifted from his hands like he had a sudden thought. Taako had a bad feeling about this.

“I’ll be fine.” Merle waved off the concern. “I’m probably the one best suited for wandering around alone here. Now you boys be safe.”

Magnus smiled, just a little. “Okay. Be careful out there, Merle.”

Taako took a deep breath, ready to settle in for the night and just BE.

Of course that was too much to ask for.

As the door closed Kravitz got to his feet and brushed off imaginary lint from his immaculate look. “Honestly, that sounds like a good idea. I’d like to take a look around too.” Taako’s head snapped around like a snake, his eyes widening. “Nothing too close to the boarders of the city, of course,” Kravitz continued, his voice falsely casual. “Just… around.”

“Oh HELL no,” Taako refused and crossed his arms over his chest in an X. “You’re staying right here where we can keep an eye on you.” Well, he didn’t mean to put it THAT way, but there you had it and it was out and well it was TRUE. Kravitz was staying where Taako could see him and make sure he was safe from just about EVERYTHING on this plane that wanted him dead.

“I think I’m perfectly capable of walking around a warded city by myself,” Kravitz protested with a grit of his teeth. It almost looked like a smile but Taako didn’t buy it for a minute. He knew better.

“Yeah, and you got dive-bombed by a bat last time we did that. No dude, you’re staying right here.”

Kravitz’s face lost the pretend pleasant look and gods help him, Taako would swear the shadows in the room got deeper with Kravitz’s scowl. “You can’t keep me here like a prisoner, Taako. You’re not in control of me.”

“It’s not about controlling you!” Taako threw his hands into the air. “We’re literally trying to keep you alive. Things out there are trying to _kill_ you, homie. And I don’t know if you noticed, but we’re not strong enough to fight them all. You almost _died_.”

“And so did you!” Kravitz shouted, his hands balling into fists at his sides. Oh so THAT that was he had been working out in his head. “You think I wouldn’t notice that, Taako?”

“But I didn’t!” Taako pointed out stubbornly. “And because of it, neither did you!”

Kravitz looked less than impressed. “You don’t get to make my life a priority. Over yours or anyone else’s!”

“I’m not going to watch you die ag-” Taako cut himself off so sharply he bit his tongue and tasted blood.

“Woah hey,” Magnus cut in, “You guys clearly have some things to talk about,” and Taako furiously ignored his pointed look, “So I’m going downstairs while you two figure this out. Magnus out!”

“Coward!” Taako shouted at Magnus’s retreating back, trying not to panic. The door closed, and he realized… he was alone with Kravitz who was ruffled like a cat pet in the wrong direction. His whole body was tense, poised, ready to fight. Taako pulled his hat off and tossed it ontop of their baggage and took a few deep breaths.

Okay, Taako. Stay cool. He could bullshit his way out of this conversation.

“Look,” Taako said as firmly as he could, “It’s been a LONG day. And a lot has happened. You’re probably hungry, and tired.”

“I’m not _tired_ , Taako,” Kravitz’s eyebrows knit together, “I’m not hungry, or cold, or wet, or any of that. I’m _frustrated_ and I want answers. What is happening to me?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Taako hedged, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet Kravitz’s gaze.

“I could feel you _dying_.” Ah. Well fuck. “I could… sense that haunted doll. You know something about the Raven Queen that you’re not telling me. Tell me.”

Taako didn’t know if this was better or worse. “You are the Champion of the Raven Queen,” Taako pointed out. “She’s literally a death goddess. Maybe your spooky connection to her has some feedback.”

Kravitz lips were a tense thin line, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not stupid, Taako. What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing,” Taako lied, and his voice pitched high, making him wince.

“Taako-”

“NOTHING,” Taako said again, louder, like he could make him believe if it if he just kept repeating it. “Stop _asking_ me!” To his horror his voice broke, and Kravitz started in surprise. Taako squeezed his eyes closed. Better – he pressed his hands over his eyes and forced himself to take a few deep breaths. “I can’t.”

He heard the sound of Kravitz’s shoes, shifting back and forth on the floor, and then he stepped closer. Taako kept his hands were they were. He didn’t… he didn’t know what he’d say if he had to look him in the eye.

“Keep your secrets then,” Kravitz said, his voice low but not unkind. “I won’t ask you again.” There was a rustle from their luggage and then the sound of the door opening. Taako dropped his hands and whipped around.

“I’m just going downstairs with Magnus. To get something to eat, probably.” Kravitz smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m just hungry.”

Taako watched the door close and then backed up until his shoulders hit the wall and slid slowly to the floor, bringing his knees up to his chest. “Damnit.”

~

Magnus was slowly nursing a drink that was more water than alcohol when Kravitz slid onto the bench opposite him. There was a tenseness in the kid’s shoulders that told him NOPE, Taako didn’t do it. Damnit, Taako. “Kravitz,” he greeted the boy with a small smile. “I’m surprised to see you down here without Taako.”

“I think he needs some time away from me, actually,” Kravitz said with a small, tight smile as he flipped his book open and began reading. Magnus let him have his time – if there was one thing he remembered about Kravitz, it was that Death put time into a funny perspective. Also, it could just be dramatics.

Finally, Kravitz took a deep breath and his body relaxed. “I’m sorry if I made things awkward earlier. It’s just… a lot has been happening lately, and I don’t understand why. You said to ask him about the magic stuff and he was…. Reluctant. To talk about anything.”

Okay, yikes. It was one thing to not tell Kravitz something – it was quite a different story to not provide him information with stuff he was already starting to question and figure out. But, he’d promised Taako to allow him to do it his own way. He was starting to regret that though. “It’s Taako,” Magnus said helplessly, like that explained it all. And Kravitz’s fingers began to drum a little ditty on the table while he read. “He’s brilliant, and eccentric. Who knows what goes on in his head.”

“Well, you do,” Kravitz pointed out, not lifting his gaze from the pages, “You’ve been his friend for a long time. A lifetime even. More.”

“Yeah,” Magnus agreed as he raised his mug to his lips again. He didn’t LIKE this. He’d told Taako he didn’t like this. The longer it went on, the worse it was going to be. “I guess you’re right. I have a better GUESS of what’s going on in his head than most, I’ll give you that.” Unfortunately, none of it was good right now.

“Hey Magnus?” Kravitz kept tapping away on the table. “We’re friends, right?”

Magnus paused for a moment, and for a moment he felt like the air was heavy, pushing against him. But then, he smiled. What was he concerned about again? This was Kravitz. “Yes,” he repeated, relaxing. “We’re friends.”

“Dare I even say,” Kravitz’s hand stopped its tempo as he leaned forward, “Best friends?”

“You’re my best friend, Kravitz,” Magnus echoed, breaking out into a wide grin. Yes. Best friend. How could he have forgotten that? Man he felt better than he had in months! Because his best friend was here! “Hey, do you need anything? Can I give you anything? I feel like I just want to give you stuff. Do you like this ax? It’s name is Rail Splinter. I really like it, and I don’t want to give it to you, but you can have it anyway.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Kravitz waved off the offer. Magnus was secretly glad but resolved to find something better to give him. Oh, Kravitz was still talking. “And friends don’t keep secrets from each other, do they, Magnus?”

“No.” Magnus shook his head vehemently. “I’d never keep a secret from my best friend.”

“Good,” Kravitz flipped his book closed. Oh hey it was the one Taako had made for him. “Then why don’t you tell me everything, Magnus.”

“Oooh, everything?” Like, _everything_ everything? Magnus’s smile dropped a little. Kravitz was going to be so disappointed! “But, I promised Taako.”

“Now Magnus, look at me.” And he _did_. Kravitz’s eyes held him hostage, any protests dying on his lips. “Taako is my friend too. Surely Taako would want my best friend to tell me these important things. Especially since he clearly can’t. And you know more than you’re sharing.”

Magnus found himself nodded along. “Yeah, he won’t. I told him to tell you too. But he doesn’t listen to me. Not when it comes to you, anyway.”

Kravitz frowned a little and looked back towards the stairs for a long moment before he leaned forward. “Magnus,” Kravitz said again, “My friend. Best friend. Buddy. Ol’ pal? Start talking.”

About an hour later Magnus stumbled into the shared room, not bothering to knock, and let the door bang into the side of the wall. Taako was sitting the floor but just about jumped out of his shoes when Magnus came in. “Damnit Magnus, you gotta learn to knock homie!” Taako complained as Magnus staggered over to the bed and fell onto it face first. Well, Merle could yell at him later.

“Doors keep people out. Best friends don’t need doors,” Magnus slurred, “They don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Taako’s head cocked to the side. “Weird flex, but okay,” he said and looked around. “Hey, where’s Kravitz?” He got to his feet slowly and grabbed his umbrella. “He went downstairs awhile ago. He said he was going to sit with you.”

“Oh yeah!” Magnus cheered, “I saw him. We were talking.” Magnus lifted his head and spat out the mouthful of blanket. “He’s my _best friend_ , Taako.”

Taako froze for a long moment and then whispered, “Fuck,” and bolted out the door.

~

Taako almost slid into the wall as he turned the corner too fast, taking the stairs two at a time as he raced down to the central dining room. He should have NEVER let Kravitz out of his sight. But as he scanned quickly for all that black on black, he couldn’t find him. He blew a locator spell, forgetting that he himself had protected Kravitz against those kinds of spells in his haste to try and avoid wasting time actually looking for him. He cursed when the locator spell pushed back. He tore open the back door and ran out into the night, ready to start casing the whole town, overturning every public space until he found him. But he didn’t have to go far.

Kravitz stood there amongst the falling snow, just out of range of the light from the inn, staring up at the cold dark sky.

“Kravitz!” Taako called out before he could stop himself and swallowed hard. He had half a mind to just blink out and pretend like he was never here. 

But Kravitz turned and pinned him in place with those bright, light eyes. They held him in place, full of conflict, and anger, and pain. It was the pain that made Taako take a step forward, and then another to go and join him in the snow.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kravitz whispered, his voice no louder than the falling snow. The warmth and color and sound of the inn seemed almost far, far away out here.

“You shouldn’t be out alone in the dark,” Taako said instead, trying to ignore the panic clutching at his heart. “And it’s freezing. You’ll catch your death of cold out here.”

“Taako. Stop.” Kravitz took hold of his wrist and Taako froze, his eyes dropped to their shoes, biting his lip. Kravitz sighed and let go of him, looking back up at the slivered moon.

“This is my fault. This is all my fault.”

Well, that wasn’t what Taako was expecting. “Come again?”

“I did this. Well, the other me. We did this.” He leveled that sorrowful expression at Taako again as his mood seemed to shift like waves, anger and sadness waring in turn across his face. “I sealed away the Astral Plane. I am the one who threw off the natural order of life and death.”

“You can’t be sure of that,” Taako insisted. “You weren’t there.”

“Now you can really stop _lying_ to me, Taako! Magnus told me everything!” And the anger was back. His hands were clenched at his sides and his teeth set. Good job, Taako. “I know it to be true. All this time, these nightmares – for as long as I can remember, it’s our death.”

Taako breathed in sharply and felt vaguely faint. 

“You were there,” Kravitz said, pinning him in place with his piercing eyes. “Weren’t you? You knew me. All this time, as I’ve been struggling blindly, you’ve known everything this whole time.”

Distantly Taako realized that somehow Magnus didn’t tell him EVERYTHING everything. Whether he’d fought against the spell to not absolutely spill his guts or just selectively tricked the spell to only tell Kravitz about this part, Taako had no idea. But it wasn’t the time for that right now. “We were… friends,” Taako clenched his hands so hard his nails left imprints on his palms. “You worked with my sister and her husband.”

“Friends?” Kravitz repeated and Taako forced himself to nod.

“Just friends,” he lied, his tongue heavy behind his teeth. “I, I found,” he shook his head. He tried so hard not to remember that day as vividly as it had imprinted into his memory. “I can’t-”

“What did Merle cast?” Kravitz demanded sharply.

Taako looked up, startled. “Pardon?”

“Whatever he did to me, that’s why I’m here. Now.” Kravitz spread his arms wide. “It’s why I was born.”

Taako squeezed his eyes closed. He could barely remember that himself. He’d been a little BUSY! “I… I think it was… Resurrection, in the Life Domain,” Taako felt his stomach lurch. He had never really thought too hard about what Merle had been casting. “He was trying everything.” And anything as Taako begged him, Kravitz, fuck the multiverse at large to please, please not take his husband away from him.

“You shouldn’t cast Life on the Undead,” Kravitz rubbed his eyes. It tumbled out of his mouth. He didn’t even seem to realize that he’d said it or shouldn’t know that it was true. “It never turns out well.”

Taako… remembered that. There was once, Merle was fucking around with what he was trying to paten as the Holy Hand Grenade. A projectile that would provide a portable long-distance healing spell for parties without a cleric and Kravitz had gotten caught in the cross fire while Merle was trying to test it’s long range during one of Taako’s dinner parties. Kravitz hadn’t been seriously hurt – but he had been extremely ruffled all evening. ‘Radiant energy,’ he said, like that explained everything. ‘Maybe, not at our house again, Merle.’

He’d almost forgotten.

“He preserved your soul, didn’t he?” Taako shot back, no use in pretending now, right? “The others – ALL the others I might add – weren’t so lucky.”

“So, Angus was right?” Taako gave him a quizzled look. “Being able to do magic just because I’m on this plane? That’s absolute bullshit.”

“I will wash his mouth out with soap,” Taako threated, “He’s not so old that I won’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kravitz demanded again. There was hurt in his eyes that was just killing Taako.

Taako flopped his arms at his side in a large, helpless shrug. “What do you want me to say, Kravitz? What do you think I should have said to a KID that just was chased down by hungry ghouls into another plane? Hi, hello, I’m Taako, nice to meet you again, even though you have no recollection of knowing me. By the way, your body carries the soul of the Raven Queen’s favorite reaper and we’re PRETTY sure as the last one standing that makes you the prime target of a demon so powerful he killed a _god_.”

“She’s not dead,” Kravitz countered immediately, “She’s a prisoner.”

Taako threw his hands in the air. “For eighteen years, she might as well have been, can we not argue semantics here?”

Kravitz lowered his head a little in acceptance. “Of course, right.”

“Look,” Taako rubbed his eyes a little, willing his stance to relax. In the long list of shit Kravitz could have found out, this was the easier portion. That still didn’t make it a fun conversation to be having. And he still wished that he could have spared Kravitz this moment. “I’m… sorry. I didn’t know how to deal with it myself, let alone how to tell you. It seemed easier for everyone to just not mention it. I didn’t expect it to get like this.”

“I understand,” Kravitz said slowly, “But I think I am still very upset with it all, Taako. I’m still mad at you.”

Taako nodded and bit his lip before taking a deep breath. “Yeah, I would be too. You have every right to be.” Last time Taako felt even remotely this way was right after Wonderland and the Red Robe had turned into Barry Bluejeans. He’d sworn that he didn’t trust ANYONE, not even Magnus or Merle and they’d been working together for almost a year for the B.O.B. “It’s shitty. I’m shitty. Not telling you was shitty. Being here is shitty. What you’re being asked to accomplish is shitty. So,” he paused, “What do you want to do?” His usual response was just to walk away completely and since he couldn’t do that, blasting something sounded great. He could see why Lup liked it.

But that was never Kravitz’s style.

Kravitz just heaved a deep sigh and looked back up at the moon, the pale light reflecting off his face. “I honestly don’t know, Taako. I’m not okay with this, but I have never had control over anything in my life. If I have to move forward, I suppose I would like to free the Raven Queen, if I can. I feel like I have to at least try, for my own part in this. But after that? If we survive that?”

For a long moment everything was silent. Even the sounds of the inn seemed to fade away, and it was just the two of them, standing out in the snow.

“You could stay here,” Taako said quietly, moving closer. “I used to have a pretty amazing school. With a little time, I could get it started again. Property is still mine. You could learn magic. You could belong here. Your soul was born here, you could just…. Come home.”

“Home,” Kravitz echoed, sad and wistful.

Taako… couldn’t handle it and reached out, taking his hand gently in his own. “This plane isn’t so bad, really,” he said quietly, “And I’ve been to a lot of planes. I mean, like a lot. You know.” A lot. “You could belong here.”

“Hey guys?”

Taako dropped Kravitz’s hands like they were on fire and they both took a quick step away from each other at the sound of Merle’s voice.

“We’ve got a problem.”

An explosion went off in the direction of the gates and there was screaming. Merle nodded grimly, firelight throwing shadow onto his face. “She’s here.”

He was dangling from the back of his jacket which was held tightly in the hand of the Gnoll General. Taako yelped and shoved Kravitz behind him, leveling his umbrella at the General. “Run! Go find Magnus! Get out of here now!”

“Boys!” Merle raised his voice, “He’s not here to fight us.”

Taako looked again and… the Gnoll had a blindfold on over his eyes. A dingy scrap of scarlet fabric tied securely in place around his head. “What the actual _fuck_ , Merle?” Taako demanded, still trying to push Kravitz back, who was NOT cooperating and kept trying to come stand beside him.

“He shares their eyes,” Kravitz said at his shoulder, “When He wishes to. The General is hiding this from His gaze.”

The Gnoll shifted his hulking weight back and forth in the snow and then mostly gently dropped Merle on his ass. Behind them the screams got louder as more fire erupted.

“We’ve got to GO,” Merle said, standing and rubbing his kiester. “There’s a path through the forest. He’s going to show us.”

“Karl, go get Magnus,” Taako said, his eyes not leaving the General. “Get our stuff and our fighter and get back down here. We’re leaving.”

Kravitz hesitated and Taako turned very slightly, meeting his eyes and seeing the conflict there. “I’ll be okay,” he promised. “Taako’s got this. Go.”

Kravitz took a single step back and then finally nodded. “If you’re dead when I get back, I’m tracking your soul down and kicking your ass,” he warned and then took off running back towards the inn door. Taako kept his umbrella out and leveled at the General’s chest, trying to not to count the minutes that Kravitz was gone.

The Gnoll General did not say anything, he just stood there, breathing roughly, his maw blowing out great huffs of visible breath. Then FINALLY the inn door flung open with a loud bang and Magnus and Kravitz tumbled outside, Kravitz carrying the majority of their luggage and supplies while Magnus, his eyes still blown, had rail splinter out. The General’s ears flicked towards them, he sniffed the air, and then he nodded as they came over and gestured towards the barn.

“The horses, quick,” Merle said, “We gotta move.” The screams were coming closer and Taako would swear that he heard the sound of steel on steel.

Magnus came out of the barn with the wagon and Kravitz threw their stuff into the back and then climbed in. The General waited until they were all in before he climbed in the back too. Taako immediately shifted, putting himself in the way of Kravitz. “Merle if this is a trap you’re fucking dead.”

The Genera’s tongue rolled out of his mouth like a demented grin. “It’s better than here!” Magnus said and gave the reigns a flick. “Let’s go!” The horses kicked their feet a little, not happy to be out again, but spurred quickly into a run.

The fires were spreading rapidly as they ran back through the town. Taako tried to not think about how many people in this town were losing everything – but the look on Kravitz’s face – Taako reached out and grabbed his hand. Kravitz closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “Feedback,” Kravitz said quietly. And yeah, Taako could feel it – the magic starting to roll off him this close to people dying. It was charging him up like a battery.

They raced past groups of the undead hunting door to door and on the streets – Merle swung at their heads whenever any of them got too close, but for the most part they were too fast for them to react to.

The wagon kicked up embers as it escaped the limits of the town, the big doors blasted off and smoldering. Now the General moved, and Taako flinched – but he ignored them all to go sit beside Magnus and began pointing in the direction for him to go.

The screams and raging sound of fire grew fainter as they put distance between them and Deepwater and Taako felt Kravitz shiver violently. “It’s okay,” Taako said and pat his hand, “It’s okay.”

The General began tapping on the wagon seat – something Taako vaguely recognized as thieves cant. Magnus began nodding and wrapped the reigns around one hand to start tapping back. The conversation was short, and then General stood and jumped from the moving wagon, leaving them hurtling down the path in the dark.

“Magnus?” Taako prompted. “What did he say? And is it a trap because let me tell you Taako’s not in the mood.”

“No, he,” Magnus shook his head, “He’s given us a path to take. And the placement of the rest of the Generals.”

“HE,” Kravitz shivered again and Taako shed his cloak to put around his shoulders. Wow that much color on him was… a look. “HE, has the ability to control his servants against their will. That was what the Haunted Doll was telling me. The General – the fact that he blindfolded himself and tried not to speak, it seems to suggest he’s trying to hide his actions from Him.”

“So we’re going to take this back road into the Fortress?” Merle said. “Are we even going to vote on this?”

“Doesn’t look like we have an option,” Magnus admitted. “Deepwater was an absolute bust.”

“Don’t even say it,” Taako scolded Kravitz.

The boy looked away for a moment and pulled the cloak closer around his shoulders. And for a moment, Taako through he was home free. But then - “Told you so,” Kravitz muttered under his breath.

“I heard that!”

“Well, I guess we’re doing this the normal way,” Merle said, “By the seat of our pants.”

“Yay,” Taako groused, “I LOVE this plan.”

They feel silent for a few minutes and just breathed. Okay.

“Wait,” Magnus blinked rapidly and whirled around. “Kravitz, did you _Charm Person_ me!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I THOUGHT I would be able to get a lot more done on this fic during quarantine. Instead like, ALL creative energy died for like, a month solid. But I'm finally picking up again, so I'm going to try to get as much done while I still have the motivation - thank you guys!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter :)
> 
> Tumblr: Minervanxy


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